“This week there’s been a lot of fuss about Amazon releasing
source code for software on its Kindle devices, including the
Kindle Fire. A lot of the hype we’ve seen is simply unwarranted;
while you can download the source code that Amazon was legally
required to publish, most of the software on the device remains
proprietary, and every Kindle is still Defective by Design.Much of the confusion apparently stems from the fact that the
Kindle Fire’s operating system is based on Android. Google releases
Android source code to the public under the Apache License, a free
software, non-copyleft license. Android devices for sale typically
include some nonfree software as well, but this source code is
enough to build a fully-featured free operating system.
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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