Pure Android?

[bigmooke]

Is there such a thing as a pure android system? Reading on here and other forums, it seems like every manufacturer modifies android x.x.x to suit their needs. I see people saying this or that does not work with their new tablet. What is tablet manufacturers modify the OS the least?

bigmooke

 

[J515OP]

Hi bigmooke, good question. There is definitely some confusion on this point. Google makes Android as an opensource OS. However, that OS must be modified to run on different kinds of hardware. So the hardware manufacturers go out and get the opensource Android and have to modify it to work on their hardware. By default this means there is no pure Android since every version has to be modified at a basic level to run on a particular hardware set.

Some manufacturers go further than modifying Android just to run on their hardware. They may add or remove features, apps, skins or other things. Generally it is these extra steps that are considered to be an alteration to pure Android rather than the hardware modifications. These changes include Touchwiz by Samsung, Sense by HTC and MotoBlur by Motorola as changes to the pure Android provided by Google. Since the hardware manufacturers are using an open source OS and modifying it to run on their hardware anyway there is nothing wrong with doing this and they are free to make the changes.

Some people only want Android modified to run on the hardware and with no other changes. Certain manufacturers also do this and this would be referred to as pure, plain or vanilla Android. The most reliable way to find a pure Android implementation is to use a Google Nexus device. These are devices where Google has teamed up with a manufacturer to produce a pure Android with only the changes necessary to run on that manufacturer's hardware. Since Google is the client these devices also tend to get more and faster updates to the newest versions of Android when they become available.

I hope this helps.

JP

 

[Natey2]

Is there such a thing as a pure android system?

Yes, this is what it looks like: http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/showthread.php?t=42823

Source code for AOSP (Android Open Source Project): http://source.android.com/index.html

 

[bigmooke]

Thanks for the insight. I spent 30 years in IT doing everything from hardware repair to network support. Now retired, I am looking to learn some about Android. I watched manufacturers twist every open standard that came along to suit their needs or force customers to buy their hardware/software. Unix, dos, scsi, vga are just some of the 'standards' that were destroyed over time.
I am looking for an inexpensive tablet to experiment with. I learned 80% of my skills by doing. The idea here is to learn about Android and various apps by doing, installing, using, removing and moving on to something else. I am assuming you are referring to the Nexus tablets that came out last month. Can anyone recommend any others that might fill the bill?

bigmooke

 

[vampirefo.]

I would image all my androids are pure androids, I did notice my Momo8 winking at an iphone today, so my tablets offspring might not be pure android though.

 

[J515OP]

Can anyone recommend any others that might fill the bill?

bigmooke

One of the cheapest (well around $100 if you look around) most developer friendly tablets out there is the Nook Color. It is nearly unbrickable and has a strong developer and user community. If you want something that you can learn about Android on from the basic use to all the flavors (you can flash anything from Froyo to Jelly Bean) as well as how to root install custom ROMs and recoveries and otherwise tinker, it is difficult to beat.

More info here Nook