[Office-commits] r9755 - trunk/holmeswilson

[sysadmin]

Author: www-data
Date: Mon Sep 28 15:08:07 2009
New Revision: 9755

Log:
web commit by holmes

Added:
   trunk/holmeswilson/whycyanogenshoulddropgoogleapps.mdwn

Added: trunk/holmeswilson/whycyanogenshoulddropgoogleapps.mdwn
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+Title: 
+## Why Cyanogen Should Just Drop the Google Apps
+
+## Description:
+Google sent a cease and desist to the maker of Cyanogen, a popular homebrew 
ROM for Android phones.  Here's why Cyanogen should just drop Google-branded 
apps, and where the community should go from here.
+
+## Body:
+
+Last week Google [sent a cease and desist]() to the maker of Cyanogen, a 
homebrew ROM for Android phones (like the G1).  Along with the free components 
of the Android platform, Cyanogen included non-free applications like GMail, 
GTalk, and Google Maps.  Google said, "stop". 
+
+Some people were surprised by Google's arbitrary and mysterious exertion of 
control-- they shouldn't be.  That's what companies who make proprietary 
software are doing from the minute they distribute a binary without the source. 
 It's bad for Google to force an awesome project built on countless volunteer 
hours into hiding (the [Cyanogen website](http://www.cyanogenmod.com/) is down 
as I write this) but the only way to have a flourishing community with real 
rights to build and explore is to build it on free software.  The cease and 
desist letter is just a wake-up call.
+
+The good news?  The non-free Google apps in question (at least the ones 
referred to in this post) aren't anything special, and are easily replaced.
+
+## Google Talk
+
+You can connect to Google Talk with any Jabber client.  There are a couple 
non-free Jabber clients available for Android, and there's a partially-working 
free client, [Jabberoid](http://code.google.com/p/jabberoid/) that could use 
volunteer help.
+
+## GMail
+
+The only practical advantage to using GMail over the free email app (called 
"Email") is search.  GMail uses an API for searching messages that haven't been 
stored locally.  Lots of Android users prefer the free, [K-9]() mail app over 
the Gmail one anyway. 
+
+## Google Maps
+
+[OpenStreetMap](http://www.openstreetmap.org/) is a collaborative mapping 
project where all the data is available under a free knowledge license (CC-BY). 
 There are [projects 
underway](http://code.google.com/p/android-openstreetmaps-navigator/) to create 
Google Maps-style functionality and even the kind of turn-by-turn navigation 
missing from Google Maps.  In the meantime, the mobile version of the Google 
Maps webpage would work fine in the free Android browser.
+
+## Youtube
+
+Youtube has an [RSS-based search API](http://www.youtube.com/rssls), and 
finding direct download URLs for appropriately-sized videos is no secret.  It 
wouldn't be too hard to make an app for searching and playing Youtube videos, 
and it could even let you download the videos to your phone (which the Youtube 
app doesn't let you do).
+
+## A starting point for the Android ROM community: Replicant
+
+The [Replicant](http://zach.tk/android.html) project (beyond being awesome for 
the Blade Runner reference) is an effort to release an Android ROM that only 
includes free software.  ROMs that go this route will have absolutely nothing 
to fear from Google.  Tons of people prefer running custom ROMs to running the 
official Google build.  With a faster phone running more recent versions of 
Android with key features unlocked, people might not miss Google's proprietary 
apps.
+