href=”http://www.hp.com/” rel=”homepage” target=”_blank” title=”Hewlett-Packard”>HP has now released the source code for its own internal version of the Android kernel to the href=”http://www.cyanogenmod.com/” rel=”homepage” target=”_blank” title=”CyanogenMod”>CyanogenMod team. CyanogenMod maintains the most popular TouchPad Android port,CyanogenMod 7 Gingerbread, as well as the new CM9 Ice Cream Sandwich. You can read all the juicy details over at RootzWiki.
I did some digging around and it appears that the wifi driver shipped with both href=”http://developer.palm.com/” rel=”homepage” target=”_blank” title=”WebOS”>webOS and with the Android are GPL, there are multiple evidences of that including the driver licensing string. Plus the driver is linked against 10+ GPLONLy kernel symbols which makes it kernel derivative. HP is still investigating this matter and we hope to hear from them soon.
Green goes on to explain that the kernel appears to be a separate development from the Touchpad’s WebOS kernel, with comments in the code suggesting that the kernels were developed by two separate teams.
This explains why some lucky souls were able to get their hands on Android-powered TouchPad tablets right out of the box. These, for sure, are really exciting news for all of you who own a TouchPad and have been waiting for a more stable version of Android. Stay tuned!
via RootzWiki
