Honeycomb vs. ICS?

---

I am wondering given that this device just got honeycomb.. is there any chance of it getting ICS?

Part of the reason I'm wondering is because I am getting my flyer sometime between the 10th and the 17th coming up according to the "estimated delivery date" when I hit buy.

I have had ICS on my captivate before I ever even got to play with Honeycomb.. my mom got the transformer yesterday.. and there are a few minor quirks with honeycomb that I really don't like.. major example being if you pull up the task manager in ICS you can remove windows and close out the programs.. Honeycomb will pull up windows that aren't open.. and it gets cluttered fast if your done with something and seeing 5 or more windows you don't want open, but can't get rid of..

no sign of ICS anytime soon but maybe if kernel source is released and CM9 development someone will port it here. In regards to the task management, yes it can get cluttered but it is better than not having it at all like gingerbread

I'm hoping they'll have the decency to update us or at least release the source code required...

IANAL, but I believe HTC legally has to release the kernel source for anything it releases. If they never release ICS, we may never get a kernel for ICS.

Honeycomb kernel might work, but I'm not sure if HTC is legally required to release honeycomb kernel source.

As far as I am aware, they did/may have use some proprietary software which would screw up our porting efforts.

So it becomes an issue of "will they" and that is what I am wondering.

Personally I don't think we will ever see ICS on the Flyer. Here are my reasons:

1. Not a lot of Flyers were sold so there is not a large user base. Thus, there is not much developer interest.

2. Sense - From what I understand from what developers have said, the kernels that HTC makes are made to work with Sense and will not work with an AOSP build.

These two things combine to make bringing ICS to the Flyer difficult and there is no one around who appears willing to do it.

I really hope that I am wrong about this but I don't think that I am.

Someone want to educate a noob?

How is it that several other devices (including HTC ones, like the Sensation) are getting ICS ports, but the Flyer/View can't? I mean, it seems unlikely that HTC released AOSP kernel sources for other devices, and even if they did, they're certainly not ICS kernels. Why is it so important for us to have an AOSP kernel (and an ICS one, at that) from HTC in order to get CM on the Flyer/View?

Oh, and then there's devices that didn't even have Android like the TouchPad, and devices that don't have their source code released, like the Kindle Fire.

I'm definitely not a developer, so I'm sure there's something I'm missing...I'm just trying to figure out what it is.

I'm repeating what developers told me or wrote here. I don't know if it is right or wrong.

I think the bottom line is that it is easier to have an AOSP kernel.

I think you can build your own kernel but that is much more work and maybe a hard thing to do.

All of the custom ROMs that we have seen for the Flyer are just modified HTC ROMs that come with certain software preinstalled or other kinds of enhancements.

More popular devices have much more developer interest. I would imagine that some less popular device owners get lucky because some developer also owns the device and is willing to spend the time.

So far, one developer said he would try to bring ICS to Flyer. He tried but gave up because of kernel issues. I don't get the impression that he did too much but at least he gave it a go. No other developer has said anything one way or the other.

I'm not holding my breath..

but, I definitely won't give up hope just yet..

The most likely path would be a port of another HTC device that uses the same processor or very similar. SO when some of the other HTC devices are released with ICS around March or so, we might see some goodness, depends on how close the hardware is and if HTC releases some source code.