November 12th, 2008 by Mordy Gilden
Open source is great, right?
That should make Google’s open source Android OS great, too.
Funambol’s Fabrizio Capobianco sure seems to think so. In a recent blog post, he shares his personal experience regarding a feature on the Android-Powered T-Mobile G1 that was fixed by the Open Source community instead of waiting for Google, HTC, or T-Mobile to release an update patch.
This is a perfect example of how Open Source platforms, when done right, can become a living, breathing entity. They are able to evolve with the times and essentially “heal” themselves, since the users are able to repair problems when spotted instead of waiting for an update patch to be released.
The problem is, at least in the case of the G1, sometimes little things fall through the cracks that would otherwise have not happened in the first place. Take this little shenanigan for example:
From user:jdhorvat
I was in the middle of a text conversation with my girl when she asked why I hadn’t responded. I had just rebooted my phone and the first thing I typed was a response to her text which simply stated “Reboot” - which, to my surprise, rebooted my phone.
Apparently, the early G1 adopters have found a MAJOR bug… The phone seems to accept and execute typed Linux commands, such as REBOOT shown above. This is regardless of what appears on the screen (SMS, web browser, lock screen, etc)!
After further investigation, it was found that the G1 has been running a phantom Linux command line underneath its GUI all this time! Every keystroke entered into the phone also enters into this hidden command line, and is executed with super-admin permissions.
Luckily, it appears most people aren’t randomly typing linux commands into text messages or emails on their G1, otherwise this may have been found a heck of a lot sooner…
Imagine texting a G1 user for a refresher on the linux commands to stop all services?
This could have gotten ugly…
In any event, very shortly after the bug was found, a major update was pushed out to fix the problem. You can read more on this bug here.
Meanwhile, I just found it very interesting to note that if the handset had not been based on Linux, this wouldn’t have happened. When’s the last time someone’s Moto RAZR was caught secretly dialing the numbers you enter to text someone?
I’m still a huge fan of Open Source, and I’m looking forward to the next generation (read:better looking) of Android phones, but it still begs to remind us: For all the good things Open Source offers, there are the occasional pitfalls it can bring as well. Especially, in this case, when it comes to complex Linux-based platforms. (Anyone ever see the in-flight entertainment screens reboot to show the Linux penguin?)
Tread carefully, folks…
November 14th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I think you’re barking at the wrong tree here. If G1 was released with such a bug you should blame the manufacturer’s sloppiness. You surely can’t blame Linux (or busybox, more likely, since Linux is just a kernel, it doesn’t talk to the user), neither can you blame open source as a whole. How many incredibly stupid bugs slipped into MS Windows Mobile? A quick search on google revealed plenty of hits. Same with S60 or RAZR.
We have to live knowing that complex software cannot be 100% error free. The question is how fast bugs are fixed after they’re diagnosed
November 21st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Stefano, that may be true, and yes even dumb-phones have bugs to be corrected in firmware updates. However, rarely is a phone released with quite such an EPIC bug out the door.
I mean, average firmware bugs could include bluetooth disconnect issues, unable to answer a call waiting call, lack of notification for new SMS… (these are actually all bugs I’ve personally had on previous phones before they were fixed with a firmware update) however having a full-featured command line shell with admin-access running in the background is a far worse and more potentially destructive bug!
I can’t honestly say I’ve found an MS Windows Mobile bug that can compare… and I’ve found plenty, believe me!