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Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

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Re: Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

#101

Post by overfeed »

johnfernow wrote: post #73
avgd wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many banking apps will outright refuse to run on rooted devices, much less google-free forks. There are ways around that but those ways are unreliable and could break at any given time -- I am not risking losing the ability to pay for things online just for the sake of running an android fork. (in my country, all the banks switched to requiring 2FA from their app if you make online purchases with your visa or masterc…

Right, but if Google's Android becomes closed source and a well-funded FOSS fork becomes available, that changes the situation. If Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, HONOR, OPPO, etc. all agree to use a new FOSS fork as their base, well Google's new closed-source Android becomes irrelevant. Samsung alone is large enough to be able to maintain a fork of Android, and a large enough percentage of the smartphone market that what…

> Samsung alone is large enough to be able to maintain a fork of Android

Samsung would rather not - they threated this card once before, while negotiating for Google to get rid of Motorola, and their bluff got called. Samsung tried to prop up Tizen as an Android alternative. Samsung since closed a number of its US OS offices - why sacrifice profits when they have a cozy arrangement: Samsung & other Android partners will continue to get the Android previews before anyone else: open source or not.

Re: Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

#102

Post by avgd »

catlikesshrimp wrote: post #82
avgd wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many banking apps will outright refuse to run on rooted devices, much less google-free forks. There are ways around that but those ways are unreliable and could break at any given time -- I am not risking losing the ability to pay for things online just for the sake of running an android fork. (in my country, all the banks switched to requiring 2FA from their app if you make online purchases with your visa or masterc…

No Email or TOTP? (No, I am not suggesting sms) In my country one bank had a 2fa app. Then they backtracked on security, but kept policy: they included the 2fa in the regular bank app. Now you don't have to use 2fa if you are using the bank app, because the bank app generates its own authorization, in the same device (app) without user interaction! Fake admiration off. We also don't have to use any 2fa when we access…

> No Email or TOTP? (No, I am not suggesting sms)

Nope. And accessing the website/online banking portal is not allowed without going through the smartphone app 2fa too.

Re: Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

#104

Post by owebmaster »

SllX wrote: post #56
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #47

Can we please just go back to having some sort of Debian-based GNU/Linux on a smartphone. Just create a really great mobile interface on top of that. The more I learn about Android, the more I think the whole thing is a waste of time.

You say “go back” but that was never more than a niche thing. For better or worse, Google’s Android has pretty much always been the chief representative of mobile Linux. And far from being a waste of time, Android is the most widely distributed mobile operating system on the planet.

> You say “go back” but that was never more than a niche thing.

but you could walk to a phone shop and buy a Linux phone, for example FirefoxOS.

Re: Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

#105

Post by gman83 »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #91
cbdumas wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm just a tech philistine but I find my Pixel 8a and my wife's iPhone to be basically indistinguishable in any meaningful way.

The camera - the only reason I would buy an iPhone is for the better camera. Sure, the Pixel 8a camera is not bad for the price but it's still noticeably worse. The kind of difference you notice when someone with an iPhone shares photos with you. Apps and the whole phone experience are a sh*tshow on both sides and I hate both with a passion. I'm still waiting for a decent linux experience on a phone - possibly with s…

Whenever they do these blind tests for different phone cameras, the iPhone never wins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRoTOE3FqT0

Re: Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

#106

Post by bogwog »

rwmj wrote: post #50
soraminazuki wrote: post #20

This really reminds me of Open Solaris. > We will no longer distribute source code for the entirety of the Solaris operating system in real-time In the case of Open Solaris, the code never came out from that point onwards. For Android, the likely end goal is to do the bare minimum of distributing only copyleft code that they don't own copyright to. Until those get replaced with a closed alternative. https://www.youtu…

But copyleft is bad and everyone should use BSD ... Code is turned proprietary by huge corporate with massive development resources. No one could have predicted this.

Stallman was right again.

Re: Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

#107

Post by gopher_space »

bfrog wrote: post #88

Android is going to go closed source. There's no benefit to Google when a Chinese company takes Android, guts the Google parts, and shoves it on a cheap ass phone for a market with a few billion people. Maybe longer still... I could see Google fully jettisoning the "other" phone makers and going all in on its own hardware to boost profits further. The iPhone is highly profitable, wouldn't you as a Google share holder…

> There's no benefit to Google when a Chinese company takes Android, guts the Google parts, and shoves it on a cheap ass phone for a market with a few billion people.

There's nobody at Google who knows what to do with that kind of market leadership, so they're just folding up shop?

Re: Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

#108

Post by beAbU »

omnimus wrote: post #99
yurishimo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you live outside of the US in which nobody gives a damn and they all use WhatsApp. After moving, I only get sms messages from the doctors office and my friends back in America.

Not true at all. This effect is pretty common in countries outside of US. It makes sense. WhatsApp is just another messaging app thats popular depending on a local whim. Where as iMessages get sent automatically between iOS users.

What countries other than US is this so prevalent?

Re: Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

#109

Post by gman83 »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #32
monetus wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit disturbing that that might be the plan though.

Isn't the plan to move Android to Fuchsia eventually (and seamlessly)?

The plan was initially to merge Android & Chrome and create "Andromeda" - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/09/android-chrome-andro...

Then they decided that Fuchsia was going to be the way forward - https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/android/117587/google-allege...

Now the latest is that they're once again merging Android & Chrome - https://www.androidauthority.com/chrome-os-becoming-android-...

But Fuchsia is still being actively developed, not sure to what end - https://fuchsia-review.googlesource.com/q/status:open+-is:wi...

Re: Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week

#110

Post by avgd »

overfeed wrote: post #101
johnfernow wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but if Google's Android becomes closed source and a well-funded FOSS fork becomes available, that changes the situation. If Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, HONOR, OPPO, etc. all agree to use a new FOSS fork as their base, well Google's new closed-source Android becomes irrelevant. Samsung alone is large enough to be able to maintain a fork of Android, and a large enough percentage of the smartphone market that what…

> Samsung alone is large enough to be able to maintain a fork of Android Samsung would rather not - they threated this card once before, while negotiating for Google to get rid of Motorola, and their bluff got called. Samsung tried to prop up Tizen as an Android alternative. Samsung since closed a number of its US OS offices - why sacrifice profits when they have a cozy arrangement: Samsung & other Android partners w…

Samsung recently deprecated their built in SMS/texting app and put an advertisement to tell us to switch for Google Messages in their app. They threw in the towel and not only will not maintain an android fork, they don't even want to maintain their own apps anymore.
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