Tweakers, get ready. Amazon has released to the world the source code for its Kindle Fire OS. The software, a forked version of Android 2.3, is now available to download directly from Amazon. The release, in Amazon"s own words, is to keep "in accordance with certain free and open source software licenses."
Among other changes, the OS includes a browser especially designed to share the workload between the device and Amazon"s servers. Amazon Silk (which represents the near-invisible split) hands over some of the work to the EC2 service. Other features include tight integration with the Amazon Appstore and support for streaming movies and TV shows.
Today"s release is the latest in a long line of successes for the Kindle Fire. The device was released a few days ago ahead of schedule, the price makes it a strong competitor against other tablets, and first impressions have so far been positive. Considering how long Google took to release the Honeycomb source code, Amazon"s speedy delivery is a good sign of things to come.
Android fans (and non-fans) can download the source code here.