Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Using only open-source software on Android

androidpolice.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 84 posts

Re: Using only open-source software on Android

#2

Post by voltagex_ »

>Unfortunately, there's a catch - microG only works with custom ROMs that support signature spoofing. The LineageOS project is against adding support for that feature, citing security concerns, so microG offers its own ROM called 'LineageOS for microG.'

Jesus - this is what the patch does:

https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/blob...

So this allows other applications to appear in the com.google namespace?

This can't be good.

Can't I have this kind of feature and still be secure?

Edit: https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/issu... is a slightly better solution - I wonder why it hasn't been implemented.

Re: Using only open-source software on Android

#3

Post by taneq »

90% of the objections here seem to be "I can't use Google's online services very easily without using Google Play", which is precisely why Google's spent the past few years piping as much of Android's runtime as possible through Google Play. The rest are mainly just that the main streaming and social media companies don't have open source clients.

Re: Using only open-source software on Android

#4

Post by st26 »

taneq wrote: post #3

90% of the objections here seem to be "I can't use Google's online services very easily without using Google Play", which is precisely why Google's spent the past few years piping as much of Android's runtime as possible through Google Play. The rest are mainly just that the main streaming and social media companies don't have open source clients.

I'd always heard that moving more and more functionality into play services was their strategy for end-running the carrier fragmentation problem.

Re: Using only open-source software on Android

#7

Post by ChrisSD »

wilwade wrote: post #6

"...and Firefox on Android still isn't a great experience..." As a daily FF on Android user, I am not sure what he is finding issues with. I wish he would elaborate so his issues can get fixed.

For example I've found the app sometimes freezes when scrolling a page. It's only temporary but it's long enough to be annoying.

Re: Using only open-source software on Android

#8

Post by Pharylon »

wilwade wrote: post #6

"...and Firefox on Android still isn't a great experience..." As a daily FF on Android user, I am not sure what he is finding issues with. I wish he would elaborate so his issues can get fixed.

That was my thought as well. I have to switch to Chrome every once in a blue moon to make things work on my Android phone, but 99% of the time, Firefox works just as well.
Post reply on HN