Based on history, it may be a pirate reverse-engineered Android OS.

blck · on May 22, 2019

I don't think you have to reverse engineer an open source operating system...

TiredOfLife · on May 22, 2019

At this point Android is as open source as Windows.

NikolaeVarius · on May 22, 2019

Please point me at anything that resembles source code that I can compile to produce a bootable variant of Windows.

colejohnson66 · on May 22, 2019

I think the GP was trying to say: just as Windows isn’t OSS, neither is Android anymore because of all the proprietary blobs and the Play Store

fulafel · on May 22, 2019

It might be against site rules.

TiredOfLife · on May 22, 2019

Please point me at anything that resembles source code that I can compile to produce Play services.

NikolaeVarius · on May 22, 2019

I was not aware Play Services was required to run Android. I have test phones that run Android without Play Services just fine.

How does that make Androids open source status anywhere near Windows?

simion314 · on May 22, 2019

What history? Did china reversed engineered Windows?

Isn't also Android notorious for re-implementing Java? So it would be hypocritical for Google to claim that you can't reverse engineer the Google Play APIs

luizfzs · on May 22, 2019

They did that with Cisco routers' OS. Huawei's switches' OS even had Cisco's logo on it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10485560675556000

uhhhhhhh · on May 22, 2019

Also Sina -> Twitter. Pretty sure the sina API still returns "Retweeted" count last I checked.