So are we, fans of FOSS, all-in on the Librem phone at this point?
Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
101–110 of 284 posts
Re: Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
#102> Problem: The Firebase Android client library is proprietary, meaning FOSS apps can not use it. Apps that do not comply are reported to the user as "using too much battery". This is a standard on the industry. From 1999: https://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/11/05/how_ms_played_the_i... It doesn't matter how much money Google is going to have to pay in the future as a fine for this practice. The amount of money that th…
Windows 8.1 was absolutely determined to convince me that my brand new i5 was incompatible with Windows 8.1. MS hasn't stopped with the incompatibility garbage.
Re: Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get it. The Telegram GitHub says: "Since one can't use Google's push messaging in a FOSS app", but I can't work out why? Lots of FOSS apps on GitHub, mine included, use Firebase. It had never occurred to me it might be an issue.
If you use a gpl library, what you make with it must be distributed under the gpl. You cannot distribute firebase blobs under the gpl. Ergo, you have used a gpl library to make something not gpl. Which is illegal.
Thanks. That is what I wanted to know.
Re: Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
#104Can this fall under system library exception? For example if you're building mingw32 based GPL C app, you're linking to all kinds of windows system libraries and there's no need for them to be under GPL. If this notification library is available to anyone on Android and is part of the Android system platform, can it be the same, like some DLL that does notifications on windows?
I think it depends on if the library is distributed with the app or with the system. In this case, the library would be distributed with the app I believe, meaning it would not be exempted.
Re: Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
#105Perhaps it is time to treat Google as the enemy, because that is how it is treating us.
Google puts 1 restriction, they are the enemy. Apple has created priopritary connectors, closed off systems, paid barriers to entry, and banning apps from their store. Where is Apple and Microsoft on the scale from Friend to Enemy?
What proprietary connectors? There was one significant one. Singular. Lightning. That's it, in the recent history of Apple. And thank God they created it: micro-USB sucks. There was a legitimate engineering need for it.
The other things you mention have all been a great service to users, in protecting their security and privacy.
Re: Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thought experiment: write an application that automatically downloads and combines code with all sorts of legally incompatible licenses to create an application and installs it on an Android device. If personally doing it is legal (and basically unenforceable), what about making it easy for others to? Besides, unless you're a "radical Stallmanist" (for lack of better term), chances are you have a mix of proprietary a…
That would definitely be a dodgy thing to do. In general, law courts are interested in the net effect of what you're doing rather than the technical details of how you did it, and what you'd be doing in that case is equivalent to distributing the Frankenstein application yourself. Describing in a blog post how to build the Frankenstein application is perhaps perfectly all right, but somewhere between there and the hy…
> Perhaps it depends on the attitude of the communities that produce the code.
I, uh, would really hope this "attitude" is standardized. GPL code should have the same meaning everywhere.
IMO, if this is an accepted practice on Linux—one of the largest GPL projects—that should be enough short of a court decision.
Re: Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
microG still sends data to Google though, I believe, even though the local code is open. Without Google involved at all, Android is barely usable as a daily driver. I tried for a while.
It keeps connection to Google, but at least does not send your location and does not help Google with personalizing ads. I'm also not logged into Google account. When all I needed of my phone was web browser + YouTube playlists + FB Messenger, lack of Play Services did not seem to be big deal.
Basically it still uses Google backends and infrastructure for push notification delivery without contributing anything to the costs of the infrastructure. It does that by spoofing the library ids and accessing the APIs with fake authorization.
I don't think that's a sustainable plan going forward.
Re: Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
#108> Problem: The Firebase Android client library is proprietary, meaning FOSS apps can not use it. Apps that do not comply are reported to the user as "using too much battery". This is a standard on the industry. From 1999: https://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/11/05/how_ms_played_the_i... It doesn't matter how much money Google is going to have to pay in the future as a fine for this practice. The amount of money that th…
It should also be added that the whole backend is proprietary (and was for GCM as well) and is being maintained and paid for by Google. Having said that, making firebase-messaging GPL-compatible library seems to be something that should make a lot of sense for Google to allow GPL apps to be released on the platform.
Probably LGPLing or MITing it, so closed-source apps can still use the library too.
Re: Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding is that what you describe is completely legal. ZFS on Linux is a good example of this. ZFS and the Linux kernel are both open source, but their licenses are incompatible with one another—ie, you can't combine the code. A common workaround for this problem is to compile the source on the user's machine. When you install ZFS in Debian, apt will automatically download the ZFS and Linux source code, reco…
Note - Debian only compiles and installs a kernel module for ZFS, which isn't quite as extreme as compiling the entire kernel.
Thanks, I didn't realize that!
Re: Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications
#110You can still write free software that uses it and produces a not-entirely-free artifact when compiled, though, right? (Is there a distribution restriction on the artifact, or is it impermissible to link it with GPL apps, or something?) I'm curious if the free software apps are compelled not to link it to preserve the free software status of their code, or just voluntarily refusing on principle (which is laudable, to…
Ubuntu gets around any possible GPL violations by offering to download and install proprietary drivers (ex., Nvidia) and codecs during installation process. Could something similar work for Android apps?
Yes, it would work - you could deliver the push notification module as a separate APK which talks to the main application part. It's still way more complexity than adding a GPL lib to your app.