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The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

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Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#131

Post by hutzlibu »

noselasd wrote: post #93
hutzlibu wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why is everyone silently accepting that? Also google, are they so bowed down to the government, that they just accept this, or do they know more reasons to declare Huawei a enemy?

> Also google, are they so bowed down to the government, What choice do they have ? Comply with law or be heavily fined, shut down, executives jailed for compromising nation security.

The same choice company allways have when acing government Intervention: they can fight in court. I believe thats why they have lawyers.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#132

Post by yoz-y »

sdan wrote: post #65
polyterative wrote: post #3

I understand that AOSP and open source is cool and stuff, but still the alternative is Apple's OS. I'm not even mad

You don't really get too much with AOSP. Google's just flexing it off to portray its "open" when in reality Google's using a reasonably different version of AOSP for Android.

In China using AOSP base is fine as people there don't (and can't) use Google services.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#133

Post by cosarara »

tantalor wrote: post #128
cosarara wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you are completely blocked from doing business, what do you lose by infringing copyright?

The article speculates legal judgements & fines for violations. So, lots.

How can the US fine Huawei if Huawei is not allowed to operate (and thus doesn't operate) in the US?

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#135

Post by zmmmmm »

lol768 wrote: post #115
enriquto wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The play store is not the sole way to distribute apps. You can download the .apk files, or get them by mail, or use another play store that has the same apps. The play store is just a repository of some apps.

I believe the Play store is treated 'special' though - F-Droid can't install apps in the same way unless you're rooted and install the priv-app.

On a phone licensing the Play Store sure. But on a Huawei phone free of those restrictions they can make it use any store they want without any special restrictions. Of course, it becomes a question what that means for security, but still.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#136

Post by _Understated_ »

Roritharr wrote: post #9

Google invested Billions into Android. Samsung tried to hedge for this by building Tizen(Bada) and realized how much needed to be invested to get an Android competitor going, so they kept the development going, but focused for their Smartwatches, as this would have to be a "if the worst happens" plan, not something that could be a profitable venture. LG has the Palm/HP borne WebOS for their TVs, i suspect with a simi…

I wonder at what point it makes sense for Samsung, HP, Huawei, LG etc. to get together to make another OS... they sell a lot of phones across the globe.

Hell, even include Microsoft in there too.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#137

Post by vxNsr »

necovek wrote: post #52

The article links to an interesting view on how even AOSP is a no-go for Huawei: https://www.xda-developers.com/analysis-huawei-aosp-google-b... What I find interesting is that Apache Licensed software can be relicensed even in proprietary form (as long as you make it a derivative work, with your derivative bits with a proprietary license), thus the easy way out seems to be to have a non-US entity make a proprietary…

I think that article is taking the wrong approach. If Huawei doesn't have a US presence, which they won't after this, and if they really are an arm of the Chinese espionage complex then what's to stop them from just downloading ASOP source and doing whatever they like with it, based on ARM's reaction is unlikely other western countries are gonna allow Huawei much longer so it really only has access to the Chinese market where it's protected. Now it's role will be more FBI vs CIA.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#138

Post by nashashmi »

kuschku wrote: post #79
EGreg wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t Android open source? So why can’t Huawei simply fork it?

Google has spent the last decade cutting apart the open part of Android and making it more and more proprietary. Launcher, Phone app, Messages, Contacts, Calendar. All proprietary. Notification API, Location API, SMS APIs and step counter APIs, and even the new app format. All proprietary. It's a huge undertaking building an app for Android today without using Google's services, and sometimes even impossible. If you…

So that is a great bait and catch strategy. Start open source and after market dominance move over to closed source.

We need anti monopoly measures to prevent this kind of thing.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#139

Post by fulafel »

deng wrote: post #110
masklinn wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software licenses are contracts.

> Software licenses are contracts. As lawyers usually say: it depends. https://lwn.net/Articles/747563/

Very interesting. So if this lawyer is right about the US, we need a new open source license that is explicitly designed to be not contract-like, to defend against Trump?

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#140

Post by sbarre »

snaky wrote: post #92
jmkni wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OS is open source, Google Play Services isn't. When you are developing Android apps, you can leverage Google Play Services for all sorts of functionality, such as push notifications and maps, and I would say more apps do use these than don't. Huawei can still put Android on their phones, but not with Google Play Services. This means that many Android apps just won't work. They also can't supply the Google Play St…

Huawei could make their own Play Services, API-compatible with Google, then all apps would work the same. Maybe that's what they actually do now.

As the article says, Amazon spent _years_ trying this approach and ultimately failed with their phone project.

So sure it's possible, but it's not as easy as you perhaps think?

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