Google releases Android code as Open Source

Today Google announced that it is releasing the source code of the Android platform.

With the release, Google kept it promise since it was announced on the “Android’s roadmap” for the fourth quarter.

According to the download page the source is approximately 2.1GB in size and it need 6GB more to complete the build. At the moment only Linux and Mac OS systems are officially able to compile the code while Windows is not currently supported.

Dave Bort, a Google software engineer and author of the announcement, stated that: “Today is a big day for Android, the Open Handset Alliance, and the open-source community.  All of the work that we’ve poured into the mobile platform is now officially available, for free, as the Android Open Source Project”.

The announcement come a day before the the scheduled sale of the first Android-based smartphone: the T-Mobile G1 phone.

Links
Google Android: http://www.android.com/;
Google’s announcement: http://source.android.com/posts/opensource;
Google Android source code download: http://source.android.com/download.