Xiaomi promises to release kernel sources for its devices but there's a catch

Xiaomi's track record with kernel sources has traditionally been as patchy as possible. The company, over the past few months, seems to have had a change in policy, though. Devices like the Mi 6, Mi A1, Redmi 4X, and Redmi 5 Plus have all seen their kernel sources released to the general public. The Chinese OEM has finally come out to make a statement on the policy change.

“As an Internet company, Xiaomi respects the GNU General Public License (GPL) and is committed to an effective compliance," the company was quoted as saying. "We are deploying all our resources to achieve a sustainable growth and have been making efforts to speed up our kernel release."

"We want to make sure that every release is safe and stable," the spokesperson went on to say. "So far, we have published the kernel sources for many devices. Moving forward, we target to release the kernel source of a device within three months after its launch.” 

Of course, the fact that there's a three-month wait period is something of a kill-joy. Ideally, kernel sources would be released along with the device. That is rarely the case, though, as only a few OEMs do that. Three months is a marked improvement over what we've seen in the past from Xiaomi. It's laudable, that considered, but only if the company actually keeps its word.