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Keep Android Open

keepandroidopen.org

741–750 of 907 posts

Re: Keep Android Open

#741
post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://grapheneos.org/features#anti-persistence GrapheneOS has apex modules disabled and never had the need for that.

ART updates are distributed via APEX since Android 12. So is it stuck in Java 12?

No, all of the standard APEX modules are part of the Android Open Source Project. Only device-specific APEX modules used to distribute driver support aren't part of it.

Re: Keep Android Open

#742
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AOSP is open source so it could be forked.

Except many key features are nowadays delivered via APEX modules, distributed via PlayStore. https://source.android.com/docs/core/ota/apex

APEX modules are open source components of AOSP. See https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/modules/. Those modules include a lot of other AOSP code beyond what's directly in packages/modules too.

Google began shipping Google builds of the APEX modules via the Play Store to work around non-Pixel devices not shipping the latest monthly, quarterly and yearly OS releases. For Google Mobile Services devices, many of the APEX modules are required to be the official Google builds from the Play Store. The changes to APEX modules are released as part of the quarterly and yearly AOSP releases.

Re: Keep Android Open

#744
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Yeah, this is pretty much the rationale behind the Paradox of Tolerance, which you alluded to. Just as a tolerant society cannot tolerate intolerance without eventually just becoming intolerant, this clearly demonstrates that the same is true for Free Software. If we tolerate the use of Free Software for the use of the non-free software, eventually one loses the freedom in Free Software. It's of course not a perfect…

> Paradox of Tolerance, which you alluded to. Just as a tolerant society cannot tolerate intolerance without eventually just becoming intolerant

I’ve always thought this was hand wavy nonsense. Tolerance and tolerating is so ill defined in these discussions that they end up pointless.

I’m also not sure game theory supports that intolerance wins out if you view it as repeated instances of the prisoner’s dilemma.

Re: Keep Android Open

#745
post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ART updates are distributed via APEX since Android 12. So is it stuck in Java 12?

I believe it's similar to kernel modules in that they can either be compiled into the kernel or distributed separately. Graphene probably just distributes it as part of the system images. This just means rollouts are coupled. Apex doesn't imply closed source, only that there is a stable surface that allows more modular updates.

APEX modules have their changes released as part of AOSP quarterly and yearly releases. There were also monthly releases with the new features distributed in the monthly mainline updates until recently. GrapheneOS is entirely capable of signing APEX modules with cross-device keys and distributing updates in our App Store, but we have very frequent OS updates and little need for APEX modules. APEX modules require a reboot to kick in so we prefer doing everything via OS releases which already only have to ship changes due to delta (incremental) updates. APEX modules are only relevant to us through how they've made the code more modular and created API boundaries between modules which are stable within major releases. It creates a bit more work for us to maintain some of our changes since we need to change the defined APIs but beyond that it's largely the same as before.

Re: Keep Android Open

#746
post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/linux.html

It's a different approach to security. There are no malicious apps in GNU/Linux repositories. (And yes, Linux security should be improved; I run Qubes on desktop) https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/docs/community-wiki/-/wikis/F...

> There are no malicious apps in GNU/Linux repositories.

That's definitely not the case. There have been repeated cases of developers shipping malicious code which ended up in distribution package repositories. Defining malicious is difficult and incredibly privacy invasive behavior is often not considered to be malicious. That software is also generally being used without a mandatory app sandbox with a proper permission model, so it can access whatever it wants for the most part beyond self-imposed restrictions.

There are similarly maintained package repositories for Android such as F-Droid. It adds the people doing packaging as trusted parties. Contrary to common misconceptions, Linux distributions and F-Droid are not meaningfully auditing/reviewing the upstream code and therefore not actually significantly reducing trust in the upstream projects. There substantial delays for updates with how most are maintained, so that gives time for external parties to find issues but doesn't mean it won't be packaged and shipped anyway.

Re: Keep Android Open

#747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GrapheneOS is in some ways not an open OS. The official builds don't provide root access. So for example apps are able to hold your data hostage from you. I get that this is in the name of security hardening. And you can make a build that has limited root access and is officially supported. But GrapheneOS isn't the end-all solution to computing freedom. Although hopefully on those devices you will be able to install…

GrapheneOS is all about security, not privacy or freedom. You coincidentally get privacy and freedom benefits, but only where they don't conflict with security.

People have the freedom to modify GrapheneOS in any way they want and run it on their device instead of the official releases. Freedom doesn't mean GrapheneOS going out of the way to provide all kinds of power user with major downsides. As an unrelated example, GNOME isn't less free than KDE because it's more minimal and doesn't have extensive configuration.

Re: Keep Android Open

#748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like GrapheneOS will be available on another "major Android OEM” soon [1]. Regulation should prevent Google from subsidising manufacturers to use Android. Arguably the recent antitrust legislation [2] applies in this case because they're effectively paying manufacturers to place that horrendous and impossible to remove search bar on the home screen. [1] https://www.androidauthority.com/graphene-os-major-android…

GrapheneOS is in some ways not an open OS. The official builds don't provide root access. So for example apps are able to hold your data hostage from you. I get that this is in the name of security hardening. And you can make a build that has limited root access and is officially supported. But GrapheneOS isn't the end-all solution to computing freedom. Although hopefully on those devices you will be able to install…

People can modify GrapheneOS however they want including making their own builds with the officially supported userdebug root support enabled. Open and free doesn't mean catering to power users with the official setup at the expense of everyone else. It doesn't mean sacrificing substantial privacy and security for niche aesthetic customization and other power user features. Defining freedom for devices as software providing more customization options for power users is strange. The freedom is from it being open source and any OS being permitted on the devices.

Devices built to officially support GrapheneOS MUST include first class support for using an alternate OS that's not the official GrapheneOS, which is part of our requirements at https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices. These requirements apply to official GrapheneOS devices in the same way as devices using a Google Mobile Services stock OS. Combined with the OS being open source, that's what gives people the freedom to legally and practically use/make forks of it with arbitrary changes.

Userdebug builds of GrapheneOS are officially supported, although we don't recommend using them on a production device. Setting ro.adb.secure=1 for a userdebug build does preserve most of the security as long as ADB isn't used, but not all of it. It still downgrades security when ADB isn't used since the changes to accommodate having root access and other debug features via ADB have an impact beyond when it's actually used. It doesn't destroy the overall security model in the way people typically integrate root access where a huge portion of the OS has it and it's accessible to apps in a persistent way.

Re: Keep Android Open

#749
post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Root access isn't available by default, but it takes about 120 seconds (including waiting for it to reboot) to add it.

Last I checked the situation was similar to what it is in Calyx, which is that it's not officially supported and you have to keep manually reapplying the root after every update.

Userdebug builds of GrapheneOS with ADB root access are officially supported. We recommend setting ro.adb.secure=1 rather than making a standard userdebug build with always-on unauthenticated ADB if it's not solely for development.

Modifying the official builds by replacing part of the core OS with Magisk and then using that to modify the rest of the OS dynamically is what's not officially supported and strongly discouraged. That doesn't mean there isn't official support for root, which is available in userdebug builds without the same massive negative impact to the security model of the OS.

Re: Keep Android Open

#750
top comment seems to be on point, it's time for more of a focus on linux mobile (or mobile linux)... this has been known to be needed for years and some progress has been made on it and more can be made with more people getting involved (postmarketos, mobian, ubuntu touch, etc.)
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