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Android without the mothership

lwn.net

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Re: Android without the mothership

#61

Post by aw3c2 »

mbq wrote: post #58
privong wrote: post #2

I have been running this setup (Cyanogenmod + f-droid, no google apps) for the past 9 months and have been quite happy. I use owncloud for keeping my calendar, contacts, and files sync'ed. K9mail + APG for (signed/encrypted) email. As the article notes OsmAnd is workable, but the what is available through f-droid is 2 versions behind (apparently with low chance of future updates due to difficulties building it). Many…

Isn't TextSecure already built into Cyanogen SMS app? And anyway dependent on the Google Play Services?

TextSecure uses Google's push service because there is no viable alternative available.

Re: Android without the mothership

#62

Post by CmonDev »

unabridged wrote: post #52

Android is a lost cause, all the man power being donated to the project is just going to line google's pockets and lock us further into closed hardware and barely opensource phones. The only future is a real linux phone, debian or ubuntu mobile, where one day there will be effortless desktop/tablet/mobile unified development. Why push for developers to waste time porting between c++ and java?

"Why push for developers to waste time porting between c++ and java"

Yes, using something like C# and Mono would be a huge win.

Re: Android without the mothership

#63

Post by a3_nm »

gohrt wrote: post #7
gudness wrote: post #5

I used to run without any google play services and running pure aosp. I stopped because Android is just so much better with google and fuck it, who cares about me any ways. Not to mention compiling aosp is a pain. Like seriously, no swyping in aosp keyboard? so i install google keyboard, then i might as well have everything. one piece of proprietary software from google, might as well go all the way. Though i still g…

There are other (non-google) swipe keyboards.

Is there a good open-source swipe keyboard available in F-Droid? I couldn't find one.

Re: Android without the mothership

#64

Post by chaz »

unabridged wrote: post #52

Android is a lost cause, all the man power being donated to the project is just going to line google's pockets and lock us further into closed hardware and barely opensource phones. The only future is a real linux phone, debian or ubuntu mobile, where one day there will be effortless desktop/tablet/mobile unified development. Why push for developers to waste time porting between c++ and java?

Only if apps don't matter to that target user base. Most people will probably not want to go without Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pandora, Netflix, etc., and devs won't build for a small user base (just ask Microsoft or Blackberry). A Google-stripped Android phone would at least be able to run Android apps.

Re: Android without the mothership

#65

Post by zokier »

I'd be more interested in the reverse; getting the "mothership" (ie first-class Google services) without Googles platform. I just generally dislike Android and would love to see something that allows running Android apps smoothly and transparently on a GNUish/POSIXy system, especially on mobile devices. Haven't tried Jolla/SailfishOS yet, maybe it delivers on that front.

Last time I noticed this "disconnect" was when I looked into running TextSecure on my desktop. Sadly it seems that there isn't really any good way of doing that (yet). I'd imagine that these days you could whip something up with LXC and Android-x86, but it would obviously need some effort to make it really smooth experience.

Re: Android without the mothership

#66

Post by unabridged »

euank wrote: post #55
unabridged wrote: post #52

Android is a lost cause, all the man power being donated to the project is just going to line google's pockets and lock us further into closed hardware and barely opensource phones. The only future is a real linux phone, debian or ubuntu mobile, where one day there will be effortless desktop/tablet/mobile unified development. Why push for developers to waste time porting between c++ and java?

Why no mention of FirefoxOS? The Mozilla foundation has our best interests at heart much more than Google and while it's not C++, html5/javascript is certainly an open enough platform which basically everything has started to target anyways. Sure, a pure linux phone would be cool in some ways, but FirefoxOS seems much closer, realer, and every bit as awesome.

FirefoxOS is definitely a step forward and I'd love to see it overtake Android, but its only a half measure. The problem is a phone does not need to be an operating system, it would be fine as just a program/desktop environment running on linux. A phone is not a special case, there are plenty of mission critical applications that run on top of linux without having to resort to building a whole new OS.

Re: Android without the mothership

#67

Post by makomk »

chaz wrote: post #64
unabridged wrote: post #52

Android is a lost cause, all the man power being donated to the project is just going to line google's pockets and lock us further into closed hardware and barely opensource phones. The only future is a real linux phone, debian or ubuntu mobile, where one day there will be effortless desktop/tablet/mobile unified development. Why push for developers to waste time porting between c++ and java?

Only if apps don't matter to that target user base. Most people will probably not want to go without Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pandora, Netflix, etc., and devs won't build for a small user base (just ask Microsoft or Blackberry). A Google-stripped Android phone would at least be able to run Android apps.

How many of those apps actually run without Google integration, though, and how many will continue to in the future? Google's moving more and more core functionality into their proprietary components.

Re: Android without the mothership

#68

Post by grey-area »

CmonDev wrote: post #62
unabridged wrote: post #52

Android is a lost cause, all the man power being donated to the project is just going to line google's pockets and lock us further into closed hardware and barely opensource phones. The only future is a real linux phone, debian or ubuntu mobile, where one day there will be effortless desktop/tablet/mobile unified development. Why push for developers to waste time porting between c++ and java?

"Why push for developers to waste time porting between c++ and java" Yes, using something like C# and Mono would be a huge win.

What would be really nice would be seeing a language-agnostic device. Based on linux, with the same APIs available to everyone, so that as on desktop linux, a thousand languages can bloom, and everyone can use the development language of their choice (including yet to be invented languages). GUI bindings would be the issue here of course, but it is not insurmountable.

It's a shame that the software landscape is so dominated by large corporations, who demand a tithe of our data every time we want to use a device.

Re: Android without the mothership

#69

Post by yuhong »

msoad wrote: post #4

It's getting harder and harder to not give up your privacy in order to use new technology. Android without all that Google goodness is a hard sell to an average customer today.

Does an average consumer have good reason to not use them though?

Re: Android without the mothership

#70

Post by seanmcdirmid »

makomk wrote: post #67
chaz wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if apps don't matter to that target user base. Most people will probably not want to go without Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pandora, Netflix, etc., and devs won't build for a small user base (just ask Microsoft or Blackberry). A Google-stripped Android phone would at least be able to run Android apps.

How many of those apps actually run without Google integration, though, and how many will continue to in the future? Google's moving more and more core functionality into their proprietary components.

Google is moving more and more core functionality into their proprietary services. A different more open operating system is quite irrelevant if google services are needed for the phone to be...you know...useful.
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