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Keep Android Open

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Re: Keep Android Open

#41

Post by embedding-shape »

malfist wrote: post #28
0x1ch wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I can't use banking or my NFC wallets on my phone, it has become 90% useless. The other 10% of usefulness is texting and calls, which every other phone can do. Unfortunately, this mostly means using the closed android ecosystem.

90% of your usage on your phone is banking apps or NFC payments? That seems hard to believe.

That's pretty much my usage pattern too, including some group texting, the occasional call and sometimes taking photos/videos. Otherwise my phone pretty much stays in my pocket or on my table the entire day. What are you using your phone for that makes that so unbelievable?

Re: Keep Android Open

#42

Post by Atlas667 »

encom wrote: post #37
nimbius wrote: post #25

This isnt going to be a popular post because the HN crowd is very much a "China bad" crowd but I hypothesize China will likely step in and offer a fork that's compatible with open ecosystems not under the direct control of the us state department. This might be in the form of commits and investment in fdroid and pinephone, or a tiktok like alternative to the wests walled garden. Edit: this will likely exist "uncensor…

I would rather put my phone in the microwave than run Chinese Communist Party OS.

Meanwhile the NSA and Mossad can see you fapping on your phone and scan your face in real time and you're implicitly fine with it

This is what lack of options does to a MF

Re: Keep Android Open

#43

Post by encom »

colordrops wrote: post #18
notorandit wrote: post #9

We ("you") have no power to keep android open. Unfortunately it is in the hands of a company that is building it for profit, in a way or the other. It's been our choice to drink this glass of wishful thinking while giving that company a solid dominant position in the market. We ("you") can only make choices that will overturn that trend. Fully opensource hardware with fully opensource software? Maybe, but also this i…

If they close things up with no alternative, the free open source software will likely start to catch up. it will take a few years though. This could be a blessing in disguise.

Somehow, Stallman returned.

Re: Keep Android Open

#44

Post by drnick1 »

stackghost wrote: post #2

From a marketing standpoint it seems like a baffling decision on Google's part. I own a Pixel and while the hardware seems decent, I've had a buggy and annoying experience with Android, and it's been getting worse lately. Are Google so high on their own supply that they think people use their phones out of preference for the OS? Because frankly it's not very good. That's like Microsoft thinking people use Teams becau…

Have you considered Graphene since you own a Pixel? It's a huge upgrade over the stock OS in terms of security, privacy and general reduction of bloat.

Re: Keep Android Open

#45

Post by hparadiz »

drnick1 wrote: post #38
pmontra wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common answer but it does not apply to at least most of Europe. Because of regulations most banks require to install their app either on iOS or Android to act as a 2FA device. One of my banks gave me a hardware device 20 years ago. When its battery dies I'll have to use their app and my fingerprint.

If you really don't have an alternative in Europe, buy the cheapest Googled Android device (less than $100 or euros), and use that as a glorified 2FA device. It's not ideal because you have to pay for it, but on the other hand Android devices with unlockable bootloaders (mostly Google Pixels now) tend to be cheaper than iThings. A Pixel 9a or 10a running Graphene for everyday use plus a cheap Android phone that stays…

When I was still rooting it was possible to bypass this on a rooted device with enough effort. It wasn't unsecure either. Padentic corporate security doesn't really make us more secure. Just more lazy.

Re: Keep Android Open

#46

Post by drnick1 »

stackghost wrote: post #13
gf000 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Temu iOS" Come on, that's absolutely laughable. There are several topics where Android is significantly ahead to the point that iOS is just a toy, and there are areas where the reverse is true. And I say that as a recent convert, so it's not like I have a decade out of date view of any of the OSs. In my experience I had more visual bugs in case of iOS than android (volume slider not displaying correctly in certain…

>Come on, that's absolutely laughable. It's not, though. Google phones are not going to suddenly become luxury devices. It's going to remain at the same level of polish (i.e. mediocre), except now without the major selling point of being able to run your own apps and have alternative app stores, etc. Back around Ice Cream Sandwich or thereabouts they got rid of "phone calls only mode" and forced us to rely on their h…

> Android is not good. I use it despite its flaws, because of the trade-offs, not because it's better.

Android is good, but Googled Android is not. You should check out GrapheneOS to see what Android done properly looks like.

Re: Keep Android Open

#47

Post by Ir0nMan »

lm28469 wrote: post #40
encom wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would rather put my phone in the microwave than run Chinese Communist Party OS.

Half, or more, of the world thinks exactly the same in regards to the US

If 50% of the world started running the CCP backed fork and 50% of the world ran the US backed fork, which one would you choose for your phone?

Re: Keep Android Open

#48

Post by jerf »

nimbius wrote: post #25

This isnt going to be a popular post because the HN crowd is very much a "China bad" crowd but I hypothesize China will likely step in and offer a fork that's compatible with open ecosystems not under the direct control of the us state department. This might be in the form of commits and investment in fdroid and pinephone, or a tiktok like alternative to the wests walled garden. Edit: this will likely exist "uncensor…

Not a chance. A fork that is under China's control, maybe, but not an "open" fork. They don't even pretend to have that as a value.

You may theoretically find it advantageous to use such a system anyhow. To a first-order approximation, the danger a government poses to you is proportional to its proximity to you. (In the interests of fairness, I will point out, so are the benefits a government may offer to you. In this case it just happens to be the dangers we are discussing.) Using the stack of a government based many thousands of miles/kilometers away from you may solve a problem for you, if you judge they are much less likely to use it against you than your local government.

But China certainly won't put out an "open" anything.

Re: Keep Android Open

#49

Post by Atlas667 »

Capitalism is the privatization of human needs. As long as these tech platforms are owned privately they will be used to police and make money.

This view NEEDS to be central to the tech freedom rhetoric, else the whole movement is literally just begging politicians and hoping corporations do the right thing... useless.

Re: Keep Android Open

#50

Post by Miner49er »

Ir0nMan wrote: post #47
lm28469 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half, or more, of the world thinks exactly the same in regards to the US

If 50% of the world started running the CCP backed fork and 50% of the world ran the US backed fork, which one would you choose for your phone?

Whatever one that lets me install what I want
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