When you cut through the hype on Android, there are several nuances to the actual implementation of the platform in real products that people haven’t considered. One is that although the Android platform is built on Linux, it has no control over the direction of Linux. Linux, as we know, moves on at its own accord. Typically when new silicon comes out, the semiconductor guys port the latest version of Linux, which can break older versions of software. This will present a challenge for Google as they try to keep the Android platform working as the Linux kernel continues to change.

Keeping that in mind, how the consortium of Google and everyone else handles the fact that they have no control over their foundation piece will be interesting. This is a problem that MontaVista has specialized in, of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that since the underlying platform that Android sits on is going to be old, Android either has to move forward (which presents its own set of problems) or it’s going to be out of date because Linux revs about every six months.

This is not an impossible problem, but it’s work and it’s an element that Google can’t control, which will be interesting to see how that aspect of it all plays out.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Embedded Linux.