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androidopen-source

What should I be careful about before open sourcing an Android project?

As the title indicated, are there any things I should pay special attention to?

Solution

  • Licensing it. Open-source is not equal to open-source... There are many different open-source licenses. And even more frustrating is: they can conflict each other. Assume you are using two open-source libraries with License A and the other has License B, then it could be possible that you are not allowed to create a project using both of these libraries - depending on A and B.

    Hence, in order to not exclude any other open-source software from making use of your project, and not to exclude anyone from using your open-source software, you should read a small article about the conflict issues, and the most-popular open-source licenses. There are two articles which helped me understanding the differences in open-source licenses:

    1. A short guide to open-source and similar licenses by Cameron Chapman
    2. Developer’s Guide to Open Source Licenses by David Marin

    Have fun, and may I be able to see some cool open-source releases of you in future!