I don't care if Google wants to pursue the open and fragmented path or a more closed and cohesive one, but acting more closed while claiming to be open is B.S. yet Android/Google fans let them get away with it while railing against other companies that are atleast upfront about what there devices can and can't do.
For the record I do enjoy my device, alot, its one of the best things I've ever owned, and it lets me do what I want to without getting in the way or requiring extra effort. I think thats a good thing. So do most people.
So will Google continue to stick to its "open" (although not really cause the actually control the carriers and let the carriers control the users) mantra even though it leads to problems like this? Or will they admit that "open" has its disadvantages, and for a consumer product in particular it may not always be the best approach and they need to reign things in a bit?
Actually they seem to be picking a third option, going for tighter control of Android while simultaneously (and hypocritically) still trumpeting about how great Android is because its "open".
Enjoy your headaches Android users, the rest of us are going to be busy watching Netflix movies.
Look there have obviously been open source projects over the last decade that have had an impact. Linux on the server side (especially coupled with Apache, MySQL, and PHP) for example. But commerical server offerings are still a major part of that landscape. And Android has had strong success in mobile, but before the iPhone changed the landscape it was just a Blackberry look alike. Windows (and too a lesser extent OS X) are still what most people use for their daily computing needs, and frankly it wasn't the open source that led the way on new tablets. Open source has contributed, and its a good thing to have around. WebKit and Mozilla/Firefox on the browser side are the biggest factors in re-igniting the web and HTML 5 looks to do away with the decrepit old Flash hopefully sooner rather than later. But Open Source was NOT the driving force behind inovation the past decade, sorry but it just wasn't.
Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine. -- Andy Warhol