As the Google Android platform has become red hot for developers, Black Duck Software
has launched an Android Fast Start program, a bundled software and
service offering designed to help Android developers get started with
Android development.
Black Duck officials said Android Fast Start helps
to automate and ensure compliance and simplify the operational
challenges of managing Android projects. Android Fast Start saves
months of ramp-up time, provides ongoing cost and time savings with
timely updates for future Android releases, and enables development
organizations to ship with confidence they are in compliance with
company policies and legal obligations, Black Duck said.
“Android has rapidly become a leading platform for
mobile innovation by offering developers rich, varied and flexible
components. Innovation is made possible by rapid enhancements and
significant releases, which require management and control,” said Bill
McQuaide, executive vice president of products and strategy at Black
Duck. “We believe Android Fast Start is an essential tool for
developers in the Android device ecosystem who want to ramp up quickly
while reducing the operational and compliance challenges related to
developing for this platform.”
McQuaide explains that Android is a complex
open-source project made up of more than 165 components, 80,000 files
and 2GB of code under 19 different licenses. The code base evolves
rapidly, with many developers and companies contributing on a regular
basis. Android Fast Start provides visibility and control of Android,
simplifies change management and ensures and automates compliance.
Black Duck Android Fast Start includes a custom
configured version of the Black Duck Suite, the company’s platform for
management and governance of open-source software in a multisource
development process, populated with detailed Android component
information. In addition, customers also receive expert “Android-Ready”
Professional Services for rapid deployment, integration and
configuration of the solution in their environment, including
build-system integration and customized workflows.
Benefits of Android Fast Start include enabling development teams to:
·
Instantly implement an “out-of-the-box” management and compliance
platform, prepopulated with Android, saving months of ramp-up time.
·
Easily assimilate changes in frequent releases of Android (occurring
roughly every three months).
·
Increase the efficiency of supply-chain logistics by providing
ecosystem partners with detailed reports on the composition of
Android-based software.
·
Ship with confidence by simplifying and automating the operational and
compliance challenges of using an open source platform with over 165
components and 19 licenses, not all OSI-approved.
Android is growing in popularity as a mobile
development platform; it captured 55 percent of new FOSS mobile
projects in 2010, according to a recent Black Duck study. For more
details on Android Fast Start, visit www.blackducksoftware.com/android.
The Black Duck study of trends in mobile open-source development
platform choices show Android leading the pack but Apple iOS still in
the game.
Analyzing data from the almost 9,000 mobile free and open-source
software projects contained in the Black Duck KnowledgeBase, Black Duck
found that of 3,800 new mobile projects started in 2010, the
open-source Android leads as the platform of choice with 55 percent of
the total. Apple’s iOS is a close second with 39 percent, and other
platforms had a 2 percent or lower share of new projects. While Android
is open, iOS is not, indicating that FOSS developers support the most
popular platforms, regardless of their openness. Beyond the two leading
platforms, Windows, Palm and Symbian have two percent or less of new
projects and MeeGo has only a handful, Black Duck said.
The number of FOSS mobile projects started in 2010 doubled from the
previous year. The increase is attributable to the increased popularity
of FOSS for mobile and the explosion of FOSS projects for mobile apps
and games (particularly in Android, but for iOS as well.)
“Mobile software has the full and focused attention of commercial
and FOSS development communities,” said Peter Vescuso, another
executive vice president at Black Duck, in a statement. “As mobile apps
displace desktop applications and mobile devices displace laptops and
desktops we expect to see broad commercial developer interest in the
top mobile development platforms, as well as consolidation in the
number of platforms that draw developer support.”
Moreover, the Black duck study showed that not all new FOSS mobile
projects are developed for a specific platform, and some, but not all,
are written for multiple platforms. While many mobile projects have
large code bases (such as Android), a distinct trend in the 2010
results was the growth of apps, particularly smaller custom
applications. Examples include a number of transit-related (bus, train)
projects from around the world (Sri Lanka, Trondheim Norway, Germany,
Spanish Railways), and the US (Seattle, Lafayette Louisiana,
Massachusetts (MassRoute)). In addition, projects created for single
events are on the increase, e.g. an application in support of an Agile
Development conference in Italy https://github.com/iliasbartolini/AgileDayConferenceApp. These and other small projects are made possible by the rapid development environments of top mobile platforms.
The Black Duck study also indicated that many of 2010’s new mobile
projects did not declare a license. Of those that did, the most popular
were the GPL (all versions), MIT, Apache, BSD and Microsoft.
"Black Duck's latest metrics concerning open-source traction in
mobile development confirm the importance of market opportunity for
developer traction," said Stephen O'Grady, principal analyst at
RedMonk, in a statement. "In concentrating on the Android and iOS
platforms, developers are advantaging two differentiated platforms.
While Android may be open source and iOS closed, they are both volume
platforms, which indicates that developer pragmatism is alive and
well."
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