Submitted by “As many of you already know, Jean-Baptiste Queru, Technical Lead for the Android Open-Source Project at Google, recently started an open source project to build a vanilla Android version for Xperia S (LT26i). From Sony side, we welcome the project and support it with resources and contributions. We always try to promote and support external innovation and the openness that Android brings. We have now published binaries required for the LT26i project to progress.” Say what you will about Sony, but this is a fantastic move. Samsung, could you please take a moment from harassing bloggers and do the same for your own devices? Thanks.
Hmmmm… that surname “Queru”… looks familiar. Any disclosures you wanna make?
I thought everyone around here already knew he is Eugenia’s husband.
just wondering how this got past sonys lockdown-department
Simple had “contributed” ONLY BINARY BLOBS.
So if Google change ABI in Android, than all those who will use those blobs will be left in the cold.
Also:
What the heck is with you guys? Andi is OpenSource project. Why are you getting excited when someone help it by making part of it ClosedSource?
I have no idea what you’re trying to say.
Of course. As they clearly state, those blobs are Qualcomm’s property. Ask Qualcomm if you want the source to be opened.
It is still a reason to be excited, because those blobs enable developpers to run Android with their own (open) source. Which you need in order to, you know, reverse-engineer or develop your own open-source replacement for the blobs. So it is exciting because we are real coders who dwelve in real coding, not ethereal beings who throw taboos and ukase from our ivory tower. We need those blobs as a shortcut, a stepping stone, even if we want to discard it later.
Edited 2012-09-04 06:41 UTC
Sony bootloader unlock service, the previous hints of Sony releasing HAL source code, CyanogenMod support, and the AOSP experiment with the Xperia S, made me decide to try a non Nexus device for the first time. I received 2 hours ago my Xperia S
Went to see what these binaries are… they are shipped in a rather unconventional format of tar.zip
[edit]
… which I just unziped to find that it is not a zipped tar file, but a zipped up directory with the name SW_binaries_for_Xperia_S_v1.tar
Edited 2012-09-04 15:16 UTC