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Keep Android Open

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Re: Keep Android Open

#211

Post by iririririr »

Tharre wrote: post #162
realusername wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer has to come from anti trust legislation. Android is too big for Google to control.

Who else is going to maintain and develop it? It's the same issue as with Chrome, even if you force Google to give it to some other company, they're all just as bad. And it's too big and too costly to maintain for anyone else but tech giants. The only other options would be convincing users to pay 5 bucks a month for their software, or have some Government fork over the tens of millions required to pay open source de…

I welcome feature stagnation on mobile!

Every single release is a step backwards.

Android 15 cannot hold a candle to what cynogenmod did on top of android 2.3. And that's objective.

Re: Keep Android Open

#212

Post by anonzzzies »

good8675309 wrote: post #175
fermigier wrote: post #62

It is a disgrace how Google has managed this situation. To recap the storyline, as far as I understand it: last August, Google announced plans to heavily restrict sideloading. Following community pushback, they promised an "advanced flow" for power users. The media widely reported this as a walk-back, leading users to assume the open ecosystem was safe. But this promised feature hasn't appeared in any Android 16 or 1…

Personally I'm excited about the death of Android, now resources can be put toward mainstreaming and maturing the Linux Phone ecosystem Hopefully 2026 or 2027 will be the year of the Linux Phone

I understand why mobile/tablet OSs are so crappy compared to desktop; in the past these devices had no resources cpu and ram wise and had to heavily watch battery consumption (the latter is still true mostly, but that should be up to the user), but my phone is more powerful than my laptop and yet runs crap with no real usable filesystem and all kinds of other weirdness that's no longer needed.

However, I have 2 Linux phones and Linux on phones is just not there. Massive vendors (Samsung, Huawei, etc) would need to get behind it to make it go anywhere. Also so banking etc apps remain available also on those phones. We can already run android apps on Linux, Windows apps, so it would be a bright future but really it needs injections and support for large phone makers.

I hope the EU/US mess will give it somewhat of a push but I doubt it.

Re: Keep Android Open

#213

Post by iririririr »

zie wrote: post #198
iririririr wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're a really vanilla user then. wake me up when there's an adblocker on an iphone.

Thankfully you don't really need an adblocker for apps on an iPhone. Your browser could use one, but thankfully those do exist :) That said, I want off the iOS ecosystem, but Google has basically said guess what? We are going the way of Apple, so we don't care about you either. So right now there isn't really anywhere else to go. I'm going to keep trucking in iOS for now, but I hope I find something better soon.

who is talking about app adblockers. power android users get their apps from fdroid. You relly are out of touch.

And you know very well, There are only meme adblockers for the browser on IOS.

Re: Keep Android Open

#214

Post by Marsymars »

zie wrote: post #198
iririririr wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're a really vanilla user then. wake me up when there's an adblocker on an iphone.

Thankfully you don't really need an adblocker for apps on an iPhone. Your browser could use one, but thankfully those do exist :) That said, I want off the iOS ecosystem, but Google has basically said guess what? We are going the way of Apple, so we don't care about you either. So right now there isn't really anywhere else to go. I'm going to keep trucking in iOS for now, but I hope I find something better soon.

> Thankfully you don't really need an adblocker for apps on an iPhone. Your browser could use one, but thankfully those do exist :)

uBlock Origin on Firefox Mobile is significantly better than any Safari adblocker I've been able to find. (1Blocker's the best I've found for Safari.)

Re: Keep Android Open

#215

Post by ClikeX »

iririririr wrote: post #182
hbn wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who could Android be possibly recommended to at this point? I know iPhones aren't affordable for the layman in many countries. But for anyone with an option, why would you buy an Android? All the "customization" things I cared about when I was on Android are either doable on an iPhone now with better implementation, or something I don't care about. I was a die-hard until I went through enough cycles of Google depreca…

you're a really vanilla user then. wake me up when there's an adblocker on an iphone.

There are several that plug into Safari, and Pihole just works. Does Android have ad blockers that do more? It's been a few years since I switched.

Re: Keep Android Open

#216

Post by chrneu »

spacebuffer wrote: post #161
arcanemachiner wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this finally pushes adoption of truly open Linux phones, then this will end up being a good thing, and the greatest favor that Google could do for the open source community. Tragically, Linux phones have languished and are in an absolute state these days, but a lot of the building blocks are in place if user adoption occurs en masse. (Shout out to the lunatics who have kept this dream alive during these dark years…

For me as a desktop linux poweruser, I find this potential transition pretty intimidating, I've never flashed a phone with a custom rom let alone switch to a completely different OS, and I am not sure if the phone can even be reset to its original OS, if things go south.

It's relatively easy. It's basically a command for each step you want to do and it tends to fail gracefully nowadays.

If you can install a linux distro you can flash a custom rom on a well-supported phone.

If it were more mainstream I could see GUI apps to manage all this for people, if they don't already exist. Idk I just use adb.

Re: Keep Android Open

#217

Post by beeflet »

dmitrygr wrote: post #105
ruuda wrote: post #8

I contacted the EU DMA team about my concerns and got a real reply within 24 hours. Not just an automated message, it looked like a real human read my message and wrote a reply. I'd urge other EU citizens to do the same.

[flagged]

Party A enforces Party B's intellectual "property"

Re: Keep Android Open

#218

Post by paulryanrogers »

chrneu wrote: post #216
spacebuffer wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me as a desktop linux poweruser, I find this potential transition pretty intimidating, I've never flashed a phone with a custom rom let alone switch to a completely different OS, and I am not sure if the phone can even be reset to its original OS, if things go south.

It's relatively easy. It's basically a command for each step you want to do and it tends to fail gracefully nowadays. If you can install a linux distro you can flash a custom rom on a well-supported phone. If it were more mainstream I could see GUI apps to manage all this for people, if they don't already exist. Idk I just use adb.

It's also high risk. I've bricked two phones doing it.

Re: Keep Android Open

#219

Post by gary_0 »

handity wrote: post #87
paxys wrote: post #73

The fundamental problem is that we are relying on the good graces of Google to keep Android open, despite the fact that it often runs run contrary to their goals as a $4T for-profit behemoth. This may have worked in the past, but the "don't be evil" days are very far behind us. I don't see a real future for Andrioid as an open platform unless the community comes together and does a hard fork. Google can continue to d…

A hard fork doesn't matter when the vast majority of phones have a locked bootloader.

Even if locked bootloaders weren't a thing, not being able to just buy a phone with an open Android pre-installed means it would get relegated to the Linux Zone, with a whole lot of "security alert" and "device not supported". Also, low popularity leads to fewer development resources, so it would probably suffer from lack of polish.

Re: Keep Android Open

#220

Post by pmontra »

drnick1 wrote: post #38
pmontra wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common answer but it does not apply to at least most of Europe. Because of regulations most banks require to install their app either on iOS or Android to act as a 2FA device. One of my banks gave me a hardware device 20 years ago. When its battery dies I'll have to use their app and my fingerprint.

If you really don't have an alternative in Europe, buy the cheapest Googled Android device (less than $100 or euros), and use that as a glorified 2FA device. It's not ideal because you have to pay for it, but on the other hand Android devices with unlockable bootloaders (mostly Google Pixels now) tend to be cheaper than iThings. A Pixel 9a or 10a running Graphene for everyday use plus a cheap Android phone that stays…

Yes, that's the endgame, an Android device in a drawer at home. But what do I have to carry on my pocket to use the minimum amount of apps? Firefox, WhatsApp with video and audio calls, Telegram no video no audio, a mail client, a YouTube client (possibly not from YouTube), a maps and navigation app (for cars), phone calls, SMS.
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