Greg Kroah-Hartman: Android and the Linux kernel community

The reason mainline hasn't accepted the wakelock infrastructure is that Google has still failed to
demonstrate why it's necessary. Almost identical benefits can be obtained using the kernel's
existing range timer functonality, which has the added bonus of removing the need for the strong
userspace/kernel tying that Android requires right now.

Of course, Google's a big enough company that maintaining a fork isn't a significant problem for
them. The question is more whether smaller companies are able to do the same. Google
presumably aren't going to maintain every Android platform, which means vendors are going to
have to forward port their own drivers. That's time that they could be spending on something else,
so will presumably result in their devices either costing more or being of lower quality. I don't think
that benefits the Android brand.