Open how? Free as in beer, or speech? I use them because they are free as in beer, and work well. I've used competing products, Hotmail, Yahoo, and they're stuck in geocities age.
Sorry, what part of Google is "free as in beer", exactly? Their search algorithms? Ad placement? Gmail? G+? GTalk? Android?
None of Google's significant properties are open. None. The emperor has no clothes. Here, chew on this:
A protective order in the case restricts access to the Android source code, limiting the number of people who can review the code and requiring that Microsoft and Motorola "give prior written notice" to Google before showing the source code to a technical advisor. Google is to have 10 days to object.
Microsoft did not do that, Google alleged, as it moved to prevent Stevenson from testifying at the evidentiary hearing slated for later this month.
"The confidential source code improperly provided to Dr. Stevenson is highly proprietary source code that Google does not even share with its partners, such as Motorola," Google said.
Code. Android. "Highly proprietary".
There are reasons to like Android, but "openness" is not one of them.