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FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

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Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#281

Post by pygy_ »

scrollaway wrote: post #269
denton-scratch wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly pedantry - scrollaway's observation is that OSM cannot have been a response to Maps, because OSM launched before Maps. GP said: "without Google Maps it would not exist." It's not pedantry to note that's the opposite of the truth.

It would not exist "as you know it today", which is a valid version of "it would not exist". Like i said, i appreciated the comment, it was pedant for a very valid reason. Yours, less so.

Neither are being pedantic. There's a pretty large difference (a complete categorical one, actually), between not existing and having been influenced.

Your dismissive tone all around is pretty jarring too.

You were factually, categorically wrong (twice now). That happens. You may want to accept it gracefully it and go on with your day.

Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#282

Post by LocalH »

proactivesvcs wrote: post #139
ThePhysicist wrote: post #113

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 (which they already start doing). Once software is primarily distributed via these stores they will also…

Microsoft are already inferring that arbitrary software is dangerous - SmartScreen's behaviour for unsigned code works against FOSS because a project (or person) has to pony up money to pay for a certificate.

Google Chrome does too, as anyone who has ever seen the "This file is not commonly downloaded and may be dangerous" message can attest.

Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#283

Post by scrollaway »

pygy_ wrote: post #281
scrollaway wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would not exist "as you know it today", which is a valid version of "it would not exist". Like i said, i appreciated the comment, it was pedant for a very valid reason. Yours, less so.

Neither are being pedantic. There's a pretty large difference (a complete categorical one, actually), between not existing and having been influenced. Your dismissive tone all around is pretty jarring too. You were factually, categorically wrong (twice now). That happens. You may want to accept it gracefully it and go on with your day.

If "that's fair enough" is dismissive to you, I hope I never end up having to break up with you!

You're not the person I was replying to, I don't have to justify myself to you. If you want me to be graceful, you can come watch me at the rink instead.

Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#284

Post by martin1975 »

InGoodFaith wrote: post #201
martin1975 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's great. Whom has been impacted by this and how, in more detail? I would say Google Maps is far more impactful and good than any protein folding....

This seems a bit disingenuous considering that progress and advancement in certain fields might not show a direct benefit until years down the line. It's a building block that might pave the way for something else.

Right. It may not pan out however. Whereas the impact of Google Maps is already proven.

Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#285

Post by account42 »

jcranberry wrote: post #117
squarefoot wrote: post #18

Tell 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…

This may also be relevant to those wishing to switch. In the part of the FAQ concerning using your own account to login. >However, you may want to be careful as Google retains full rights to block any account under their Google Play Terms of Service §4 (opens new window), because using Aurora Store clearly violates their terms of services. Being banned means that the very Google account you used to sign in with will…

Don't expect a dummy account to help if you use the phone's phone number for your main google account.

Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#286

Post by account42 »

dotcommand wrote: post #126
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #3

This is outrageous. Google definitely lived long enough to become a villain. It is incredible how much goodwill they've lost in the past decade. When was the last time they did anything good ?

> Google definitely lived long enough to become a villain. I hate to break this to you but google was born a villain. Nobody innately good has to remind themselves "Don't be evil". Imagine walking down the street and meeting a stranger constantly repeating "Don't be evil" to himself?

Being able to group people into "good" and "bad" ones is convenient. It means you only need to find out once if someone is a "good" or "bad" person and once you have decided that someone is "bad" you can justify any of your own behavior towards them. But just because it is convenient does not make it true. People are people. Choices are bad or good or more likley somewhere in between. Nobody is innately good or bad - while some poeple my be wired to be more selfish than others, the choices they make throughout their lifes are as much dictated by the circumstances they are made in and by the experiences made before them as they are by the neurological makeup of the person.

Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#287

Post by account42 »

LocalH wrote: post #282
proactivesvcs wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft are already inferring that arbitrary software is dangerous - SmartScreen's behaviour for unsigned code works against FOSS because a project (or person) has to pony up money to pay for a certificate.

Google Chrome does too, as anyone who has ever seen the "This file is not commonly downloaded and may be dangerous" message can attest.

Both Microsoft and Google will outright claim that files are Malware and even make up names for some trojan or whatever that the file supposedly contains based on nothing more than machine learning algorithms an heuristics. They will then drag their feet in removing the false positives, deny the review without any reason or simply automatically flag the same file again and again and again. All while Microsoft and Google are not letting users download the files without navigating through intentionally misnamed menu options or just straight up delete the legitimate software without any user promt. At this point I can only assume that this behavior is has malicious intent.

Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#288

Post by account42 »

dheera wrote: post #197
ThePhysicist wrote: post #113

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 (which they already start doing). Once software is primarily distributed via these stores they will also…

Can one just make an app that doesn't show those links if the viewer is coming from a Google corporate IP?

You can try, but if they find out then good luck ever releasing anything on a Google platform again.

Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#289

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

scrollaway wrote: post #195
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually , OSM was launched before Google Maps, in August 2004, while Google Maps were launched only in February 2005, six months later.

I enjoyed your pedantry :) that’s fair enough, but I maintain that without Maps it would not exist in its current state as a reliable alternative to it. Just like I maintain that without Google Search we would not have Bing.

Well, I disagree. The first web client that OSM had been, of course, very different: there wasn't smooth scrolling, etc, which were added after Google Maps did it.

However, a nice and smooth client with drag and zoom was a rather obvious thing to do: a lot of computer games had maps in them as early as in late 1980s, like Sim City and many others, where you could zoom, drag along etc, and it wasn't done in OSM rigth from the start mostly due to pitiful state of web browsers and web standards of the time. So I think that even without Google Maps, OSM would have evolved to have great usability, just as it did in our timeline.

Re: FOSS app removed from the Play Store for linking to the project's website

#290

Post by nbardy »

sterlind wrote: post #213
nbardy wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the other reams of world class machine learning research and model weights they've released freely.

perhaps this is whoosh, but I thought Google wasn't releasing their model weights or source code, at least for a lot of things. like with WaveNet, it was easy to train but computationally infeasible to run the way they published the paper. then it turns out there's a trick that makes playing it forward far more efficient, which Google later acknowledged using internally, but didn't disclose.

They don't always release weights and often the code and weights are delayed from the paper.

But more often than not they release a lot of their weights and/or research code.

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