Sad state of open source on Android tablets

[Angus Gratton]

On Sat, 2010-07-24 at 22:58 -0700, Chris DiBona wrote:
> Did youexamine the documentation of each of these or is this a survey
> of whether or not they mirror online? (curious) 

Hi Chris,

I looked at both whereever I could. It's certainly possible I missed a
GPL notice & offer of source somewhere.

Here's my summary on each:

Apad - Have said openly on their web site that all development is done
by Rockchip and they don't have sources to release, encouraging people
to go direct to Rockchip.

Archos - Have a GPL downloads section on their web site but it's all for
their media players. It's certainly possible that a GPL notice is
lurking somewhere else, but I couldn't find it. Googling turned up that
they promised someone last November that source would be posted on their
site for one model:
http://strazzere.com/blog/?tag=archos-5-internet-tablet

Eken - Covered by previous email chain.

Gome - Shenzhen company, appear to have a tiny brand presence and no
online presence (either as Gome or Gomes) I could find. They use the
same WM8505 as Eken and I don't think they have source either.

Moonse - Shenzhen company, same chipset as the Apad and I believe they
use the same binary-only release compiled by Rockchip. 

Pandigital - Covered in this morning's email.

Smart Devices - Looked in the firmware downloads and the Chinese
Language User's Guides for the older Q5/Q7 models, didn't find anything
that looked like an offer for source.

Regards,

- Angus