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Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

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Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#231

Post by rayiner »

liendolucas wrote: post #158

No one tech-savvy wants this. We are already sick of Google's Android lockdowns on mobile phones, and now coming after laptops and desktops? What's that going to be like? Will developers have to beg to have control over devices they own? Will we be locked down on the store and have to manually install "unverified" software? Will I be able to take screenshots at will on MY computer, or get a black screen because Googl…

The era of "tech-savvy" adults is going to have been limited to later Gen X and millenials. My zoomer brother and sister in law are no more tech-savvy than my boomer parents. It's all locked down, for their own good.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#232

Post by skeeter2020 »

danpalmer wrote: post #94
Rohansi wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where? I don't see any other than the nagging to update settings after larger updates (couple times a year).

The installer has 3 free trials in it (photos sync, xbox, office 365), and then re-runs that part of the installer periodically. The start menu shows sponsored articles in it IIRC, although this was something I turned off as soon as I could. It also pushes apps like Candy Crush. The lock screen has ads literally "dotted" around, again pushing cloud services etc. I keep being prompted to turn on Copilot, and essential…

and despite the fact you can install AND uninstall numerous web browsers, for some reason Edge is (supposedly) built into the OS and core functionality and it can't be removed - and is the default app for countless file types.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#233

Post by officeplant »

Tanoc wrote: post #117
dziulius wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cinnamon DE (linux mint) is stable, mature and miles ahead of gnome

Cinnamon is probably the best to use right now followed by XFCE because it uses XWayland by default. It provides nearly full use in both directions while still allowing both the new plugins and old widgets systems. It's also surprisingly stable. The only bug I've ever encountered in my now ten years of using it is on an N100 powered laptop, where if I let the computer go to sleep instead of turning it off eventually…

Cinnamon getting good recently kind of blew my mind. I'm an ancient Gnome 2.x elitist, and typically hated cinnamon every-time I've tried it.

Every now and then I distro hop and ended up on LMDE (linux mint debian edition, the real linux mint) which only has a cinnamon offering out of the box. Much to my surprise its actually good. It still has random bugs triggered by stuff I've tried adding to the panel, but that's par for the course with gnome, XFCE, and MATE lately anyway. Over all it's a solid DE now even if the stock start/menu is underwhelming everything is fixable.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#234

Post by pxc »

surajrmal wrote: post #76
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When someone says "Linux" in isolation, they mean a conventional Linux distribution. Only extreme pedants and Richard Stallman call it "GNU/Linux".

I prefer to call it systems/Linux these days. The amount of gnu bits in a desktop Linux distro is ever shrinking.

> The amount of gnu bits in a desktop Linux distro is ever shrinking.

What GNU software is actually being removed from any distro?

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#235

Post by kangs »

pbmonster wrote: post #157
coffeebeqn wrote: post #2

Linux is better in every conceivable way

I can conceive a couple of ways. GrapheneOS-style sand-boxing for every app is long overdue in Linux. I'd love to have it's granular permissions for every single service. I'd love to have the battery management, the unified settings UI, the effortless disk encryption UX and key management. Could you build it with SE Linux and a lot of glue? Yes, but nobody has. And doing it well, everywhere, would take a lot of hours…

just run bazzite already

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#236

Post by elcritch »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #229
exabrial wrote: post #227

An operating system ran by an advertiser is the worse thing you could ever run. Chromebooks were awesome because they were impossible to screw up. Then the advertising department rammed itself in there.

To be fair, we're like an inch from verification cans on Windows 11 already.

Hate to admit it but I sorta miss the evil M$SFT days. At least Windows was the product then.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#237

Post by wkat4242 »

gf000 wrote: post #37
wkat4242 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think a mega corp having full access to my phone while me not having that is very "secure". Sure it's pretty ok against third parties but in my threat model Google and Apple are also adversaries. Microsoft too by the way. In my model my Linux pc is a lot more secure as there's no adversary having direct access and more control than me.

Privacy != Security We shouldn't be happy with the state of security on Linux, while simultaneously enjoying its privacy benefits.

For me privacy = security.

If a company has access to my data without my -completely voluntary- consent, that's a security breach.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#238

Post by abdullahkhalids »

vbezhenar wrote: post #92
WorldPeas wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My pessimism is that with their coming clamp-down on external sources for -installing- "sideloading" apps https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45736479 this os may be somewhere between macos and ipados in terms of freedom in the coming years. I have hope that Valve's operating systems and unified platforms will provide a way not only for macos/windows users to move on while retaining compatibility, but for the compan…

Home computers are inherently more open to sideloading. So I don't see a scenario where they would close it. But may be I'm spoiled by x86, wouldn't be surprised to find out that ARM computers would not be open to boot unlock and all that stuff.

MacOS requires dropping to the terminal to install unsigned applications. There is literally no need for this, except to ensure apple profits.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#239

Post by dredmorbius »

gf000 wrote: post #133
KetoManx64 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty openly known that GNOME is hostile to its own userbase and their preferences,, why continue to use it instead of KDE or any of the other 10 DE environments?

> It's pretty openly known that GNOME is hostile to its own userbase It's pretty openly in bad faith to assign malice to open-source developers.

GNOME does in fact have a long track record on this point. Decades old.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#240

Post by wkat4242 »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #103
bandrami wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of open source is I don't have to trust the person who wrote it

You don't have to. Which is good! But in practical terms there is a lot of trusting of someone/their-code going on. Unless you are reading/understanding it all . I trust linux more than windows. But I've never read a line of it...

The thing is, there's always someone who does read it or inspect changes. It will surface soon enough if untoward things are happening.
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