Honeycomb is a production branch of the code, shipping on hardware already available on store shelves. So the idea of it being withheld as 'not ready' doesn't pass the smell test.
Surely withholding Honeycomb is within Google's rights and likely its best interests. But I don't think you can argue that it fits within any reasonable definition of Open. If "Open" has but one inviolable property, what could it be if not "source code availability"?
Honeycomb may become an Open Source project in the future. Google may have every intention of making that happen. But until the source is released "Open" isn't a property of their project, it's an unrealized goal.
And when evaluating how likely they are to deliver on that, I note the trajectory of the Android project has been away from Open and toward Closed for some time now. This non-release is an acceleration of that trend, not a simple continuation or an aberrant change in direction.
The best-case scenario is that Google does release Honeycomb, merely putting us back to where we were already arguing about whether Android's "Open" was translating into real, practical benefits over the approaches of Microsoft, Apple, RIM and HP.
Whereas the likeliest scenario is that this "eventually-Open" lag between product release and code release becomes a regular fixture. So not only will the practical advantage of Android's Openness be debatable, but the applicability of those contributions will vary within the release cycle.
Surely withholding Honeycomb is within Google's rights and likely its best interests. But I don't think you can argue that it fits within any reasonable definition of Open. If "Open" has but one inviolable property, what could it be if not "source code availability"?
Honeycomb may become an Open Source project in the future. Google may have every intention of making that happen. But until the source is released "Open" isn't a property of their project, it's an unrealized goal.
And when evaluating how likely they are to deliver on that, I note the trajectory of the Android project has been away from Open and toward Closed for some time now. This non-release is an acceleration of that trend, not a simple continuation or an aberrant change in direction.
The best-case scenario is that Google does release Honeycomb, merely putting us back to where we were already arguing about whether Android's "Open" was translating into real, practical benefits over the approaches of Microsoft, Apple, RIM and HP.
Whereas the likeliest scenario is that this "eventually-Open" lag between product release and code release becomes a regular fixture. So not only will the practical advantage of Android's Openness be debatable, but the applicability of those contributions will vary within the release cycle.