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They planned so from the start.

This is the reason why I'm not a fan of permissive licenses.

This is the reason why I’m not a fan of permissive licenses.

If Google is the sole copyright holder, a copyleft license would change nothing because they still have the option to change the license going forward.

Full AOSP compatibility for Pixel devices is a huge reason to buy a Pixel instead of a 3rd party OEM. They're shooting themselves in the foot.

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That is actually a fair point, but I assume out of the millions of lines of code, not all of them come from Google, right?

That would requiere convincing the copyright holders of those lines, or at least rewrite them. The latter I don't see it impossible, but it would take time.

Still, I will always rather a strong copyleft license...

They'll just do an Apple and publish the source to the bits they have to while keeping the bits they don't closed source making the os as a whole closed source.

That is probably a fraction of one percent of the pixel purchases.

So, basically what they're already starting to do?

Soooo, that means that android is fucked but custom roms should be able to continue from android 15, not?

I don't understand.

also I thought Apple builds upon BSD style licensed stuff, while Android is on Linux which is gpl?

Doesn't matter for a distribution, Apple historically also shipped some gpl tools like bash and Samba, they just provide the source for what they have to.

Maybe but those 1% of buyers are multiplicators incentivizing others to buy the same phone.

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Yes, they incentivize another 0.001%. How is google going to survive this?

Of course they are. They always did. The entire ecosystem is so closely tied to google services that it's almost impossible to use the phone without them (if you want to use banking and security apps). For now the only alternative is iOS and I'm starting to doubt if mobile Linux will ever become usable.

Yes, they incentivize another 0.001%. How is google going to survive this?

Tech geeks acting as multiplication factors are the people who brought Apple from obscurity to mainstream.

That was 40 years ago. Any more recent examples?