Over the past few months there's been a growing trend among manufacturers to play nice with the development community. We've seen Sony release early alpha builds of Android 4.0, Asus bow to community pressure and unlock the Transformer Prime's bootloader, and HTC offer similar unlocks for almost all of its devices. This newly-found openness doesn't seem to be abating: Samsung has made the kernel source code for its Galaxy S II Android 4.0 update available for public download, and HTC has followed suit with similar releases for its Vivid, Sensation, and Sensation XE smartphones.

The kernel source is a valuable tool for developers, providing the code needed to easily modify core device functions, allowing for CPU overclocking and countless other tweaks. Although both companies release kernel source codes for all of their models, these releases are unusually prompt, and hint at a change in attitude towards the development community.

Those of you inclined to trawl through vast sections of code can find the releases in the source below. For the rest of you, stay tuned for news of the first community efforts to come from the releases.