Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced that they are handing off Google Wave to the open source community. This is because Google decided to end development of Google Wave as a standalone product.
The Google Wave team will expand on the 200,000+ lines of code that went into the product and detailed on the website waveprotocol.org. The open source project will be known as “Wave in a Box.”
The Wave in a Box project will have an application bundle that includes server and web clients that support real-time collaboration. Threaded conversations will be supported in the Wave in a Box application. Wave in a Box has gadget, robot, and data API support. Wave data can be imported from wave.google.com.
The open source project will not have the same functionality as Google Wave, but developers will have the ability to run wave servers and host waves on their own servers.
Earlier this year Amsterdam based software consulting company Software Improvement Group warned the government not to implement OpenOffice.org unless Oracle proved they will properly maintain the software. Before Oracle bought out Sun Microsystems, Sun had properly maintained and invested in OpenOffice.org.
Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) is in the process of suing Google because they are using Sun’s Java technology for the Android operating system. Oracle also decided to stop supporting Sun’s open source operating system called OpenSolaris. It almost appears that Oracle does not have much of an interest in open source technology. And this is understandable because Oracle is an aggressive software company. It is what keeps them competitive with Google, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, etc.
After acquiring Sun, Oracle also gained ownership of MySQL — an online open source database technology. MySQL has been split into multiple projects that are independent of Oracle according to ComputerWorld.
Given Oracle’s lack of open source commitments, it only makes us wonder what the fate of OpenOffice.org will be. About 450,000 people have contributed to the open source office application platform. There’s a chance that one of those people may take the code and rename it, keeping it alive, just in case Oracle decides to no longer support the initiative.
Google’s mobile software engineers have been working feverishly since Android’s launch in 2008 with the T-Mobile G1 to update the mobile operating system as fast as possible. Starting out with version 1.0, Android is already at version 2.2. Unfortunately, while the Android 2.2 public build has been available for quite some time straight from Google, hardware manufacturers and wireless carriers alike have been a bit slower releasing their updates with only some phones actually receiving it thus far.
However, if you’re a Galaxy S owner, for instance, waiting next month for the 2.2 build you have it easy. It was just made known that the Canadian version of the Motorola Droid (known internationally as the Motorola Milestone) won’t be getting updated to Android 2.2 until Q1 2011.
Of course, this may change and Motorola may push forward the Milestone Android 2.2 roll out but for now take your anger out in the comments below.
One of the great things about Google’s Android mobile operating system is the fact that it is open source. This means hardware manufacturers are capable of developing their own unique skins to lay over Android. HTC has their every so popular Sense UI and Samsung has the less popular, but not always hated TouchWiz UI.
However, what if you hate these overlays and just want to enjoy Android in all of its original goodness? Well, if it weren’t for some innovative hackers out there you would be out of luck. Thankfully, these hackers have managed to get the stock version of Android 2.1 running on the Samsung Galaxy S almost entirely. Unfortunately, the camera application isn’t working as planned but they are shuffling feverishly to get this fixed.
When that bug is worked out, except the stock version of Android 2.1 for the Galaxy S to get pushed out. Let’s just hope they do the same for Android 2.2 when it gets released.
Android made its first release in 2008 with version 1.0. Ever since, Google’s software engineers have been hard at work improving just about every aspect of the mobile operating system. Currently, the latest publicly available version of the OS is Android 2.2 dubbed Froyo. If you’ve been following Android releases you’ll know that Google names every release after a dessert, of sorts.
In fact, Android 3.0 is set to be dubbed Gingerbread but what about the releases after that, as in 3.1, 3.2 and maybe in 4.0? Well, it may be a bit too soon to even be thinking about that but rumors have surfaced today that suggest the next publicly available version of Android following 3.0 will be code named Honey Comb. Of course, as our source points out, this most likely won’t be the name for Android 4.0 considering that release is still a long ways off.
Instead, Honey Comb, if true, will most likely be the name of Android 3.1 or 3.2.
Any bets on what features these updates will bring with them?
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