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AOSP project is coming to an end

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Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#101

Post by transpute »

AJRF wrote: post #86
transpute wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2025/6/1.html > For more than 90 percent of the billings and sales facilitated by the App Store ecosystem, developers did not pay any commission to Apple. Would the remaining 10 percent of App Store sales have meaningful competition from a CLI (no GUI) terminal VM that enables development workflows on iPad?

> developers did not pay any commission to Apple That's certainly a take. The developer fee is $99 a year, that HAS to be paid to put something on the App Store. Sure they are not getting commision on the download, but they ARE getting their pound of flesh from the developer fee.

An estimated 3M iOS developers would generate $300M developer fee revenue.

App store revenue is around $100B, or 300X estimated developer fees.

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#102

Post by jacooper »

nixass wrote: post #26
input_sh wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most devices supported except pixel devices are few years old. That pretty much sums it up, there's a reason all of those custom ROMs pivoted to supporting basically just Pixels. Apart from Pixels, your only options are Fairphone and a few years old Chinese models (Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus), none of which are even close to state-of-the-art hardware. Custom ROMs are pretty much dead, this just might be the final na…

> (Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus), none of which are even close to state-of-the-art hardware. Well, Pixel is arguably pretty shitty hardware as well

I truly hate how crappy their processors are, it's insane that their upcoming flagship will have the same performance as a three year old flagship.

you don't need it, it's just a phone. Yeah maybe now, but in two years when the pixel is shitting itself you will understand.

If GrapheneOS dies, that's probably it for me with pixels. The only advantage left is how cheap you can get a new flagship pixel on the gray market.

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#103

Post by onli »

rs186 wrote: post #95
onli wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the impression, yes. They still have a big list of supported devices, which means many maintainers, and they managed well to port their system to new android versions, even if a recent point release killed many devices. Have a look at https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ , or alternatively my ROM finder https://www.sustaphones.com/ . However, I personally switched to CalyxOS. I was a bit unhappy with LineageOS p…

I really like the idea of LineageOS but got tired with fighting SafetyNet (or whatever the name is today) and playing cat and mouse game on a previous phone. I just can't have an everyday phone where 20 different things don't work. Too bad.

I read that sometimes, but it hasn't been my experience. It maybe depends on local customs. In Germany for example, even banking apps usually work with custom roms, so does the train app and so does VoLTE - and that's all I need. For everything else there is F-Droid.

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#104

Post by transpute »

ABS wrote: post #77

FWIW: Google says Android Open Source Project not being ‘discontinued’ amidst Pixel change impacting custom ROMs https://9to5google.com/2025/06/12/android-open-source-projec...

  Pixel device trees and other code used to adapt the AOSP release to specific (Made by) Google hardware was not released in a big change from precedent. Without the Pixel hardware repos (which include the device trees, driver binaries, and more), custom Android ROMs will have a hard time developing their OS updates. This might also have implications for security (vulnerability) researchers.
Some large organizations buy Pixel hardware for security properties and an ecosystem with multiple teams testing and contributing upstream. Their procurement teams may have opinions on this change.

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#105

Post by edude03 »

terhechte wrote: post #20
transpute wrote: post #13

Hopefully AOSP Pixel device support is merely delayed, not ended, since Pixel is the only way to get Debian Linux ("Terminal") VM + desktop mode support, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43973395 . With Apple's ongoing refusal to enable VM/JIT support on iOS and iPad, Google Pixel + GrapheneOS + Debian is a very competitive 2025 offering.

This is my biggest iPad gripe. I understand the security, but just make it a new "entitlement" that is only given to UTM, Parallels and VMWare fusion. Or make it a "developer mode" that you can only enable if you pay $99 a year. I'd be fine with that, but the whole iPad is unusable for any kind of software development and I'd love to be able to travel with just an iPad because for everything else I do while I'm trave…

Can’t you already do that? If you pay 99/year you can sign your own apps with whatever entitlements no? You just can’t submit them to the Apple Store for obvious reasons

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#106

Post by transpute »

edude03 wrote: post #105
terhechte wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my biggest iPad gripe. I understand the security, but just make it a new "entitlement" that is only given to UTM, Parallels and VMWare fusion. Or make it a "developer mode" that you can only enable if you pay $99 a year. I'd be fine with that, but the whole iPad is unusable for any kind of software development and I'd love to be able to travel with just an iPad because for everything else I do while I'm trave…

Can’t you already do that? If you pay 99/year you can sign your own apps with whatever entitlements no? You just can’t submit them to the Apple Store for obvious reasons

It was removed, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44255512

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#107

Post by DanAtC »

xnx wrote: post #97

Not true. From the Android VPN and GM: "We're seeing some speculation that AOSP is being discontinued. To be clear, AOSP is NOT going away. AOSP was built on the foundation of being an open platform for device implementations, SoC vendors, and instruction set architectures. AOSP needs a reference target that is flexible, configurable, and affordable – independent of any particular hardware, including those from Googl…

Reading between the lines tells me they're discontinuing Pixel AOSP support which is a pretty big blow with zero warning to those who used them as de facto reference models.

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#108

Post by skeledrew »

Unlikely now, but the writing has been on the wall since "Android Market" became "Google Play Store" and feature after feature has slowly been migrated from AOSP to GMS over the years. The frog continues being brought to boil, and the inevitable will eventually happen.

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#109

Post by vbezhenar »

lipowitz wrote: post #71
vbezhenar wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to switch from iPhone to Pixel and switched back. Modern Pixel is absolutely not clean android. It's a mess of misfeatures. There's no clean android. iPhone is lean and compact compared to Android. GrapheneOS is solid, but built by security freaks, so unless you're a fan of OpenBSD, it makes little sense to use it. And any custom ROM locks you out of many important apps, like banks apps, NFC payments, etc (un…

I don't see what OpenBSD has to do with it. Is this like liking reliability in a car meaning you are a Toyota fan? I've had no trouble with banks, brokers or payment networks on GrapheneOS but I don't use crap like company-X pay wallets..

GrapheneOS is not just AOSP rebuild. They do an astonishing amount of work to harden Android. They have a lot of security and privacy-related features. They built a custom layer over Google Services to contain them.

I admire this effort. However I don't care that much about my privacy and I don't care about extended security. All I want is a basic Android system without any of added apps, without any AI. I want the most basic apps for phone, SMS, camera. And I want working Google Play to install some additional apps. I want OS focused around this goal. Not OS focused around extended security or privacy.

So it's like suggesting to buy M1 Abrams instead of Toyota Land Cruiser.

I'm embracing ascetic computing. I'm using Arch Linux with bare minimum of apps for my desktop. And I wanted to do the same for my smartphone. Pixel is incredibly bloated. I spent few days just navigating its maze of settings, trying to disable them all. At this point, I'm back to my old iPhone, which at least allows me to uninstall almost every single app and old enough, so it does not support Apple Intelligence (thank, god).

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#110

Post by belowaverageiq »

input_sh wrote: post #22
pzo wrote: post #7

sad, was thinking to switch from iPhone to pixel 10 in few months once released exactly for the reason that is clean android and gives and escape hatch to use grapheneOS or lineageOS or calysOS. Any other android phone manufacturer that is supported by any of those projects? Most devices supported except pixel devices are few years old.

> Most devices supported except pixel devices are few years old. That pretty much sums it up, there's a reason all of those custom ROMs pivoted to supporting basically just Pixels. Apart from Pixels, your only options are Fairphone and a few years old Chinese models (Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus), none of which are even close to state-of-the-art hardware. Custom ROMs are pretty much dead, this just might be the final na…

this is not true at all. the 1yr old OP12 has LineageOS and so does the 6 months old 13R, with support for the 13 incoming.
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