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AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

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Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#201

Post by matheusmoreira »

trashcan_man wrote: post #194
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Corporation like Google should have been fined to the edge of bankruptcy for such predatory behaviour. Google has an alternative at least (can download other app stores, apks, and have been able to for 15 years), I have no idea how Apple has been allowed to get away with what they do.

I never understood the argument that Apple's hostility to developers was unfair. The business proposition is simple: "Buy our overpriced hardware with our famously inflexible and invasive software and sign this massive, legally-binding contract agreeing that you understand all of the above to extract further value out of the Apple ecosystem." The "App Store" is just a natural extension of the club. As far as I'm conc…

> The "App Store" is just a natural extension of the club.

If by "club" you mean Apple's digital fiefdom.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#202

Post by brainwad »

dataflow wrote: post #184
brainwad wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So the "trap door" here is just that you can't buy a phone and immediately start loading apps I'm sorry, I thought I owned the phone I bought, and had a right to decide what software I want on it whenever I want.

I agree wholeheartedly, but you can already unlock and root your phone and install whatever you want. This is not that battle. Mind you, I don't like either of these, but they're very different in nature.

And if I want to run the stock OS I paid for, with apps of my choice? It feels like a bait and switch to lock down the OS like this after you've sold the device.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#203

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

notpushkin wrote: post #153
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats the only reason for at least me to use f droid and I have for the last decade I think. It "just works". As opposed to play store apps requiring "play store services" meaning having to sign into play store. It refuses to do so on a FOSS principle so I am literally cut off from a lot of apps. Aurora store helps but apps that "require play store services" don't work.

> "play store services" meaning having to sign into play store Not necessarily. Most apps that require Play Services should work fine even if you’re not logged into Google. You do, however, have to have the “gapps” installed. ( Some apps would also actually check whether you’ve installed them from the Google Play store and not, say, Aurora, but from my experience most don’t bother.) Also, perhaps look into microG? It…

I have microg installed but it doesn't do anything? It also needs to be logged in?

Gapps is what exactly. I have stock android on oneplus, just don't have play store signed in.

Many apps refuse to work.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#204

Post by orsenthil »

Just remove the open collective link. Point to your homepage where the motivated donors will certainly pay. You already should know how many of the motivated users actually care about donations. The goal of this story and publishing it in HN seems to catch more eyeballs and marketing of Ankidroid, under new leadership. All I am suggesting is, just play along with Google. No harm here.

I am sorry, if I am wrong. Happy to be wrong too.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#205

Post by tremon »

ta8903 wrote: post #84
tremon wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me it's not really the concept of the app store that's dystopian, it's not that different from a deb or rpm repository. What is dystopian is the level of control the OS vendor maintains over the entire ecosystem.

>it's not that different from a deb or rpm repository The difference is that the default app stores require you to make an account to be able to use them. This would rightfully be considered insane on desktop OSs, yet is considered normal for phones.

Is it really that insane of itself? I don't see many people arguing that Valve is evil for requiring a Steam account to access their game library (ignoring the online activation/DRM question).

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#206

Post by AnthonyMouse »

KPGv2 wrote: post #154
varispeed wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crappy state of affairs is that the tax payer funded regulators twiddle their thumbs and do nothing about it. Corporation like Google should have been fined to the edge of bankruptcy for such predatory behaviour.

We Americans collectively voted for this for decades. Virtually everyone who has cast a ballot for a national race has voted for this state of affairs. Especially in the software community, overwhelmingly self-described libertarian, all voted for this. It takes a big government to stop this from happening. (It also takes a big government to stop structural racism, etc., which means higher taxes, which means there's n…

Of the last 10 Presidential terms spanning 40 years, Republicans have held the office for 5 and Democrats for 5. Each party has likewise held around half the seats in the House and Senate. This has nothing to do with the voters, it's the structural outcome of a FPTP voting system. You get two parties and they each get around half the votes/seats.

The US federal government has also played a major role in causing this by passing laws like DMCA 1201 and the CFAA which incumbents use to threaten competitors who attempt adversarial interoperability.

Moreover, the DoJ budget is ~$33B whereas e.g. the military budget is ~$1T, so arguing that the only way to allocate more resources to antitrust enforcement or similar is to raise taxes would imply that all of the existing spending is critically necessary and Congress never e.g. buys tanks the Army doesn't want or otherwise poorly allocates existing funds.

The US Government spends a preposterous amount of money, and the number only ever goes up. It doesn't need to be bigger, it needs to be less inefficient.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#207

Post by westurner »

notpushkin wrote: post #30
westurner wrote: post #19

It sounds like Epic Games v Google must be heard again? Does that precedent apply to this, or did they settle? Epic Games v. Google: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games_v._Google GitHub Sponsors is another way to raise for an open source organization.

> GitHub Sponsors is another way to raise for an open source organization. Which they do in fact use, with OSC as a fiscal host. Still doesn’t help here though – Google is unhappy with the nature of transaction (donation that is not tax-exempt in the U.S.), not with the platform on which it occurs. If they instead made the donations go to e.g. the lead developer, it would probably be allowed (“peer-to-peer payments”…

A majority of the people that have contributed to Android did not contribute with the understanding that Google would monopolize payments in all apps on the app store.

They must have updated their terms.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#208

Post by deaton »

devsda wrote: post #40
brainwad wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can install from other stores (AnkiDroid is on F-Droid, for example), or from direct file download on Android already. The problem is rather thay most users just use the store preinstalled on their phone as part of Google's deal with OEMs to bundle Google Play Services. So either you follow Google's rules, or you lose all the users who don't want to leave the walled garden, even though they can.

When do we stop this instinctive response of "well you can still do it in an only slightly convoluted way" everytime a corporate does something bad. Windows added ads - well you can disable them, if you don't like it. Chrome brought up mv3 - well you can still use mv2, it is only optional. Reddit locking subreddits behind login wall - well there's always old.reddit Android moving everything to playstore - there's alw…

old.reddit is also locked behind a login wall too, now!

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#210

Post by OsrsNeedsf2P »

skeledrew wrote: post #39

Apps need to exit the Play Store. I have a whole slew of apps which haven't been updated for a while now because Aurora Store isn't working because of whatever Google of doing. Meanwhile the ones installed via FDroid and other means are perfectly up to date. It's a crappy state of affairs as Google continues to close the boiling Android frog.

I've started to see more B2C business apps not be on the Play Store, like Veed is online web
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