Greed is good. - Gordon Gecko
FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
171–180 of 293 posts
Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
#172Tell Google how you feel about that by searching "google app store alternatives", then installing Aurora Store. https://auroraoss.com/ https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS From the Aurora Store FAQ: What is the difference between Aurora Store and Google's Play store? Unlike Google's Play Store, Aurora Store doesn't track your downloads or the apps you use. We respect your privacy. Aurora Store is also unaffected by Google ma…
Always amuses me when using google to search for f-droid . Google will always insist you meant android and show you those results instead, which of course is the play store version if it exists.
What you speak of does not appear to be the case.
https://i.imgur.com/3R6JzvB.png
The search results even gave me the correct name of the app in f-droid that is named differently. (firefox > fennec)
Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is very black and white thinking. Large organizations can do both good and terrible things. Google still serves are huge portion of search traffic which pretty clearly is a good thing. Youtube has an incredible wealth of tutorials & educational content. Deepmind is pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Various OSS projects continue to be pushed out. Gmail has been an amazing free resource for millions etc.…
Yeah, google does awful shit every day but it's worth remembering that Maps, Search and YouTube are world-changing resources. All three have their problems (especially that third one) but they have done an incredible amount of Good in the world and they continue to do so every day.
The world changing resource is OpenStreetMap. Google Maps is just an asset to better track users.
As for YouTube, it is technically marvellous, but since they started censoring and silencing one side of a political spectrum, YT turned into a propaganda machine, no less.
Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
As they are, app stores are crap. They are a huge control mechanism to stiff competition. For those of you who are old enough: Imagine if in 2000, Microsoft released "Windows Me" with something similar (for PC) to what Apple or Google are doing in the current dominant computing device form factor (Mobile). It just would not have been tolerated. Adobe, Netscape, Autodesk, Corel and others having to pay Microsoft a 15%…
A Microsoft operating system was on 97% of all computing devices in the year 2000, even higher if you narrow the definition to something like "home computer".
Microsoft didn't block or remove apps from the internet.
Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please be mindful not to spread misinformation. The motto is still featured in their code of conduct as it always was. https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/
> "Don't be evil" is a phrase used in Google's corporate code of conduct, which it also formerly preceded as a motto. What misinformation? Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil
The article is wrong, and this is explained in the Talk page. There's no source for the claim that the motto has been removed.
What's linked is a clickbait article about how they moved the phase from the opening statement to the closing statement in the Code of Conduct. That says nothing at all about its use as a motto.
Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
#176Just wait 5-10 years and it will probably be the same way on Windows and MacOS. They will argue that installing arbitrary, unvetted software through the web is dangerous, so it's only reasonable for Microsoft and Apple to make this very difficult and instead promote installing all software through their app stores (which they already start doing). Once software is primarily distributed via these stores they will also…
The possibility of OS vendors forcing users to only install software from their walled gardens is the reason Valve started to support Linux, created their own Linux distro (Steam OS, now based on Arch Linux) and ultimately why Steam Deck was built. IIRC the main trigger was Windows 8 that back then had a strong push to only use Windows Store to install software. Valve could not conceivably continue doing business if…
Valve can keep quiet about this until they're ready, too... because the steam store is essentially the de-facto online game store to the extent they could let their game studio heritage exist almost entirely on mythology (half life, portal, left 4 dead)
Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, google does awful shit every day but it's worth remembering that Maps, Search and YouTube are world-changing resources. All three have their problems (especially that third one) but they have done an incredible amount of Good in the world and they continue to do so every day.
The world changing resource is OpenStreetMap. Google Maps is just an asset to better track users. As for YouTube, it is technically marvellous, but since they started censoring and silencing one side of a political spectrum, YT turned into a propaganda machine, no less.
I love OSM but without Google Maps it would not exist.
It’s just not all black and white.
Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
The possibility of OS vendors forcing users to only install software from their walled gardens is the reason Valve started to support Linux, created their own Linux distro (Steam OS, now based on Arch Linux) and ultimately why Steam Deck was built. IIRC the main trigger was Windows 8 that back then had a strong push to only use Windows Store to install software. Valve could not conceivably continue doing business if…
Yeah-- I thought SteamOS was mostly dead, sitting on a shelf "just in case". I was wrong, and it now appears that Valve is sending the message "we're ready to do this thing at any time". Steam has something like 100 million+ active monthly users. Certainly some are casual and wouldn't make the switch, but that's a lot of home desktop market share to lose even if only half made the switch initially, and there'd be a h…
Anecdotally, but my windows machine's sole purpose is to run steam games (and associated utilities around it like discord that all seem to either be web apps, wrapped in electron or chrome). The only thing keeping me from installing Linux for everything is poor proton support on a handful of games.
Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
#179Just wait 5-10 years and it will probably be the same way on Windows and MacOS. They will argue that installing arbitrary, unvetted software through the web is dangerous, so it's only reasonable for Microsoft and Apple to make this very difficult and instead promote installing all software through their app stores (which they already start doing). Once software is primarily distributed via these stores they will also…
> Just wait 5-10 years and it will probably be the same way on Windows and MacOS. They will argue that installing arbitrary, unvetted software through the web is dangerous, so it's only reasonable for Microsoft and Apple to make this very difficult and instead promote installing all software through their app stores Apple already does this on macOS. macOS treats all un-Notarized apps as if they're radioactive, and le…
> Every Mac based on the M1 chipset and above will not run unsigned binaries, either.
So this is different to Intel macs? You can’t just go to security and privacy and “allow”?
Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's why Microsoft won't do this. Steam users have a big investment in games on Steam, and are quite likely to switch to SteamOS, even if not every game works perfectly, rather than buying all those games again. And that would create a big Linux customer base that game studios and hardware makers would develop for, threatening Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop.
More likely if Microsoft did it, they would integrate Steam into the store, or allow Steam to be installed via the store They have already signaled their willingness to add 3rd party stores with their partnership with Amazon for Android Apps.
That would still be problematic since Valve would be at the mercy of MS, hoping they didn't change their policies after a while the way other app stores have done. Steam could still roll out SteamOS then, but it would take time. Meanwhile games might start developing integrations (and DRM) in the combined MS/Steam platform in a way that made disentangling for Valve to go their own way much more difficult.
Even if MS didn't demand a cut of the revenue, it would also probably mean Valve could no longer add whatever they wanted to Steam. If MS didn't impose some restrictions then Steam could completely allow circumvention of the MS store. Steam does sell some desktop products besides games, and presumably would want to keep that option open.
I could be wrong, but tying themselves so closely to MS would impose too many potential problems down the road and limit their ability to change or expand business models, too much risk to put their fate almost completely in Microsoft's hands.
Now, if MS purchased Valve, that might be different.