Re: What did people expect?
"And no, Android is not really Free and Open Source Software. Yes you can download the source code and compile it yourself"
That sounds free to me.... ?
"but it's to complex to do any meaningful changes"
Software is hard for most people?? Who knew!
"and even if you can make any changes, many devices will have locked boot loaders or require binary blobs to work."
Agree with that one... and that's where I get annoyed with android - the OS itself is free (if you don't want the Google services - which you don't need for an emulator specific device). It's the networks, phone manufacturers and the chip makers.
- Chip makers release proprietary drivers, locked down, no source code available. Once that driver isn't supported in a later version of android, your buggered. Only happens on big architectual changes though, like from Gingerbread to ICS.
- Phone manufacturers lock the phone down for most normal people, basically so they don't screw the thing up, but also occasionally to lock in their own services/apps which are really just bloaty crap.
- Then you get some which let you unlock it, under the proviso that doing so will void your warranty. Great, I bought a phone under the assumption I could do this, because the phone manufacturer said I could.
- I found out that while my phone manufacturer allowed bootloader unlocking, my network had decided to lock it down with no chance of unlocking it. The manufacturer wouldn't comply, because as far as they were concerned, it was the networks phone forever - they were not legally allowed to unlock it. The network refused to unlock it, when I eventually found somebody who understood what I was asking, they revealed don't provide that service. They made a business decision to lock the thing down with no hope of unlocking it... so no security updates after however long they chose to support the device (less than a year). Arses!!
The main problem with android is that while it's free (and open) - there are just a lot of companies and people involved in getting a device built - and most companies/people either don't understand FOSS or care that some people actually enjoy having open devices.