Live data from Hacker News

Keep Android Open

keepandroidopen.org

891–900 of 907 posts

Re: Keep Android Open

#891

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like eventually any company will start squeezing customers for what they are worth. But only once the company is powerful enough. We don't call Google a monopoly, because there is Apple, but taken together they certainly behave as one. Both create expectations, create expected momentum in a certain direction, people build (companies, lives) on those assumptions and boom, you can't get out and now the company…

> We don't call Google a monopoly, because there is Apple We call that a duopoly, which is similarly bad as a monopoly.

It’s slightly different because apple is a hardware manufacturer primarily that happens to have its own OS, whereas there are many other phone manufacturers, and not all of them even use google’s version of android/linux on them, nor have to in the future. And sure google makes hardware too but they’re small relatively speaking.

I guess what I’m saying is it’s less of a duopoly traditionally speaking because as companies they build primarily different things.

Re: Keep Android Open

#892

Google is killing Android. Along with the side-loading changes, I'm losing the desire to keep using it, as it's no longer an open OS. What's the point of those changes? Does Google want to maintain its revenue from Play Store? Feels like a bad long-term decision, especially when Apple is releasing excellent phones.

They’re making it worse in your opinion maybe, but I don’t think you can say they’re killing it. It’s not going to die. I fully expect sales will continue to go up and consumers won’t care about this much in general.

Re: Keep Android Open

#893

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer to use an actual credit card, in order to keep the control over my computing in my hands.

Indeed, I do too. But since you always need at least one backup means of payment, I keep a second virtual card on mobile for that. Which alas is a very convenient solution.

Why can't you have two plastic cards from two different banks?

Re: Keep Android Open

#894
post #887

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> incredibly privacy invasive behavior is often not considered to be malicious This is not true for Debian, which is the upstream of PureOS. > therefore not actually significantly reducing trust in the upstream projects And yet, it has practically negligible number of malicious apps, especially compared with Google Play. It's far from perfect, and you are right that the sandboxing should be further improved. Neverthe…

> This is not true for Debian, which is the upstream of PureOS. Lots of the software they provide has privacy invasive behavior and far more than that has poor privacy. > And yet, it has practically negligible number of malicious apps, especially compared with Google Play. Google Play is not the only app repository for Android-based operating systems. There are repositories in the style of traditional Linux distribut…

> Lots of the software they provide has privacy invasive behavior and far more than that has poor privacy.

You can't attack Debian like this without providing a few examples.

> No, it has very poor privacy and security.

This is just an empty accusation. Have you seen serious security problems in Debian with any noticeable consequences recently?

Re: Keep Android Open

#895

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you consider strict threat modeling when deciding which approach to security is preferred. How about a threat of Google removing your control of the OS [this thread] and [0]? Or Google delaying security patches [1]? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45017028 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45208925

>Google removing your control of the OS That is a feature of Play Services and not a part of AOSP which is what we are talking about. >Or Google delaying security patches Like it or not coordinated vulnerability disclosure is a thing in the industry and is done by other Linux distros too.

This is not "coordinated vulnerability disclosure". It's waiting for slow vendors at the risk of everybody else.

Re: Keep Android Open

#896

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux, linux, linux, if you’re blackpilled keep it to yourself, contributes nothing.

Like many others in this thread have already said, Linux is not the solution. You call it blackpilling, I call it facing reality.

Your reality is sad, glad I don't live in it!

Re: Keep Android Open

#897

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, I do too. But since you always need at least one backup means of payment, I keep a second virtual card on mobile for that. Which alas is a very convenient solution.

Why can't you have two plastic cards from two different banks?

I find that cards are a PITA, mainly because they're always expiring and I tend to change physical address a lot.

Re: Keep Android Open

#898

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: vast majority is not making those choices, and if you insist on defying the mainstream, you gradually become separated from human society. This isn't solvable through individual choice. It's a coordination problem - and coordination problems are what underlies every actually hard problem that humanity is struggling with. War, poverty, authoritarian regimes, corporate overreach, environmental destruction…

The direction of society is the aggregate of our individual choices. I'm no expert on coordination, but I think we ought to start with ourselves and not spread misery like "your voice doesn't matter" or "humans can't coordinate at scale".

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem

Re: Keep Android Open

#899

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in '99 Linux didn't run Excel/Word/Powerpoint or most games, but I ran it anyway. What others call showstoppers are for me inconveniences. I have a motorolla edge 2024 that I'll load whatever open source phone OS will work well enough to place calls and browse the web. I'll keep another phone for the rare times some corporate/government overlord requires it. Many folks who refuse to use smartphones, similarly ow…

> I'll keep another phone for the rare times some corporate/government overlord requires it. Not having to do that is the whole point (especially as those are not rare to most of us). This reminds me of a Woz interview in the early days of the iphone, and his solution to it not supporting multitask was also to run two phones.

I wonder if woz saying that was tongue in cheek, a poke at apple. It would be his style.

Re: Keep Android Open

#900

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in '99 Linux didn't run Excel/Word/Powerpoint or most games, but I ran it anyway. What others call showstoppers are for me inconveniences. I have a motorolla edge 2024 that I'll load whatever open source phone OS will work well enough to place calls and browse the web. I'll keep another phone for the rare times some corporate/government overlord requires it. Many folks who refuse to use smartphones, similarly ow…

What's an inconvenience for you is a no-go for many others. I'm willing to put up with certain things... others aren't.

Or their employers aren’t! We can’t all choose the software we use.
Post reply on HN