Abiding the rules of General Public Licence v2, Motorola has now released the Kernel source code of Moto X4 at Github. Hence, developers can go through the source code that helps them to create custom roms and other mods for the recently launched device.
The source code tag namely ‘Payton‘, depicts that the kernel source code is applicable for all the X4 models. Which Comprise the normal X4 and the Android One based Moto X4. For your info, the Payton is the general codename for all X4 variants.
Here’s the plausible explanation. Although, most of the Android parts are licenced under Apache licence, fortunately the main ingredient – kernel is not. The Linux Kernel, which is present in every running Android ROM in some shape or form is licensed under the GPL v2. As result, for any Android developer it’s mandatory to make their kernel source code open and available for public.
In fact, major smartphone vendors do publish the kernel source code of their products. Might take time, but publishes rather than never mostly on Gerrit or GitHub repositories. Among them, Motorola and Sony are famous for their timely release of the source codes.
But at the same time, there do exist some exceptional cases since the world is not perfect. The OEM’s such as Micromax and Rockchip debide the GPL rules and are now in controvorsies as they fails to release source code of their certain products.
Anyway, you can have a look at the kernel source code of Moto X4 by clicking on the Source link.