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Is bloatware protected under the tenants of open source?  (Source: Optaros)

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, during a recent Q&A session  (Source: YouTube)
Google CEO says it would be violating one of Google's guiding principles to allow users to revert to stock configs

From skins like HTC's Sense UI and Motorola's Motoblur, to the deluge of apps installed on Android phones by carriers and hardware manufacturers, Android phones can be a bit cluttered at times -- much like their PC brethren. 

Many customers have wished in vain that there was a single, easy "reset to stock configuration" option, which will revert their phones to a stock build of Android and delete the excess.  Not so fast, says Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Mr. Schmidt, an opinionated figure in the tech industry and part-time evangelist for Google's philosophy, recently explained in a question and answer session why Google doesn't believe this is a good idea.  He states, "If we were to put those type of restrictions on an open source product, we'd be violating the principle of open source."

Of course "open source" is as wide and diverse an umbrella as possible in the tech industry, and Mr. Schmidt's definition of open source may be quite different from the next man's.

So other than taking the open source "moral higher ground", why might Google not want to give customers a quicker way to remove OEM/carrier junk?  Well one key reason is market share.  Google gives away Android for free, hoping that the mass adoption will more than make up for the development costs via advertising and app sales.  Part of the equation to convince wireless carriers and hardware manufactures to pick Android over a competitor (Symbian, webOS, Windows Phone 7) is allowing them to free modify their custom Android build to their heart's content.

But curiously, despite Mr. Schmidt's statement and the apparent advantages to adoption that not including a "clean build" option brings, Google reportedly will go in quite the opposite direction with Android 3.0 "Gingerbread".  Gingerbread will kill off custom OEM skins, replacing them with a single Google-made skin.  Of course the carrier-specific apps/junkware will likely remain, but Google's actions definitely show it to be quietly moving in the opposite direction, even as it defends customized deployments.

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RE: It's really quite simple
By eskimospy on 9/27/2010 8:58:33 AM , Rating: 5
Clearly.

If you see a product that may wish to purchase you should not make any suggestions as to how it could be better. If a phone has 99 features you like and 1 you don't, do not for any reason attempt to voice feedback and displeasure at that one feature in the hopes that it will be changed. Instead, simply don't buy that phone and hope the phone company psychically figures it out for you.

This is a common tactic that works very well for our nation's girlfriends and wives, and I see no reason why we should not carry it over to the tech sphere.


RE: It's really quite simple
By FITCamaro on 9/27/2010 1:27:24 PM , Rating: 1
It all depends on how important it is to you. Usability is pretty high up there for me. If I like every feature of the phone but the OS skin makes it largely unusable, why would I buy the phone?

You give your feedback when you go to try the phone out and then buy something different. Handset makers do ask why a phone doesn't sell if its sales are poor.

Or again, you try it out and take it back. When you do, you tell them why. That information makes its way to the handset manufacturers.


"Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be." -- Steve Ballmer











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