Thursday, November 4, 2010

Android - An Operating System


                The Android operating system is developed by Google team. It is an operating system for smartphones. Google  has   made   most   of   the Android   platform   available   under   the   Apache  free software  and open  source   license.  Android  is  a  freely downloadable  open   source   software   stack   for  mobile devices   that   includes  an operating system, middleware and key applications based on Linux and Java.  
Google developed  Android  collaboratively as part  of  the Open Handset Alliance,  a group of more than 30 mobile and technology   companies  working   to open up  the  mobile handset environment. 



             Android  is   a   software  platform  and  operating  system  for mobile devices,  based on  the Linux kernel,  and developed by Google and  later   the Open Handset  Alliance.  It  allows developers   to  write  managed   code   in   the   Java   language, controlling the device via Google­developed Java libraries. Applications   written   in   C   and   other   languages   can   be compiled to ARM native code and run, but this development path   isn't   officially   supported   by   Google.   Android   is available   as   open   source.  Google   threw  open   the   entire source code (including network and  telephony stacks)  that  were   not   available   previously,   under   an  Apache   license. Certain parts that relate to a specific hardware can't be made open and are not  considered part  of  the Android platform. With Apache License,  vendors  are free  to add proprietary extensions without submitting those back to the open source community.  While Google's  contributions   to  this  platform are expected  to  remain open­  sourced,   the branches could explode using varieties of licenses.

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