As part of the Android's open source Apache license, manufacturers are required to publicly release all of their own modifications and improvements made to the Android core. Today, both Samsung and Motorola decided it would be the perfect time to drop the Captivate and Droid X code to their respective open source sites.
This will allow ROM developers to figure out all those little quirks specific to the hardware and incorporate them into their releases.
Note, however, that the Android license doesn't cover proprietary extensions, such as custom vendor applications and widgets, and therefore does not require manufacturers to open source them:
Licensing
With the exception of brief update periods, Android has been available as open source since 21 October 2008. Google opened the entire source code (including network and telephony stacks[31]) under an Apache License.[32]
With the Apache License, vendors can add proprietary extensions without submitting those back to the open source community.
Droid X
You can find the Droid X open source code right here.
Captivate
You can find the Captivate open source code here (search for SGH-I897).
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![gingerbread_man[8]](http://www.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/gingerbread_man8_thumb.gif "gingerbread_man[8]"){kind=small}
3 Comments
this open source code, is this considered a ROM?
This is what devs should be able to compile/build into a working ROM, albeit without proprietary apps.
I'm pretty sure the only part of Android that manufactures have to release changes to is the Linux kernel. Everything else is under the Apache 2 licence, in which changes made do not have to be released back under the same licence. AndroidGuys got this wrong too. It does help ROM developers increase hardware compatibility, but that's pretty much it.