I think that it is important to remember that open source is a path not a destination. Open versus closed is never a black and white argument as much as some would like it to be. Google has done a lot for open source. Hopefully they will continue to do so. We should be supportive of them when they support open source. We should also respect their decisions when they chose not to open something. That doesn't mean that we have to like it, or that we shouldn't tell them that we don't like it.
The media and many critics beat up Google over a single incident regardless of the sum of their history. Especially over Android. So they haven't opened it yet. They said they would when it was ready. In contrast, Red Hat released RHEL 6 to some customers for testing before they did a general release. No one thought they were going closed source.
In the end it comes down to one thing: freedom. If we want to live in a society where people are free to use open source and add to it, then we have to remember that they also have the freedom to NOT do that. We shouldn't overlook or forget contributions just because we don't like a single decision.
I think that it is important to remember that open source is a path not a destination. Open versus closed is never a black and white argument as much as some would like it to be. Google has done a lot for open source. Hopefully they will continue to do so. We should be supportive of them when they support open source. We should also respect their decisions when they chose not to open something. That doesn't mean that we have to like it, or that we shouldn't tell them that we don't like it.
The media and many critics beat up Google over a single incident regardless of the sum of their history. Especially over Android. So they haven't opened it yet. They said they would when it was ready. In contrast, Red Hat released RHEL 6 to some customers for testing before they did a general release. No one thought they were going closed source.
In the end it comes down to one thing: freedom. If we want to live in a society where people are free to use open source and add to it, then we have to remember that they also have the freedom to NOT do that. We shouldn't overlook or forget contributions just because we don't like a single decision.