Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
51–60 of 392 posts
Re: Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
#52Wrong approach. Vote with your wallet instead. My next mobile phone will not have OS from Google (not from Apple).
I would if there was a viable mobile phone OS I could switch to. iOS isn't any better. Linux phones, sadly, aren't very practical for daily use. AOSP based projects also have many limitations, and are still dependent on Google.
Re: Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
#53why anyone thinks "open letters" and petitions to a trillion-dollar company will get them to change their mind is beyond me
It's something apps that will soon break can point their users to so they know to blame Google and a bunch of incompetent governments.
Google will not change their minds, they're too busy buying goodwill from governments by playing along. There aren't any real alternatives to Android that are less closed off and they know it.
Re: Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
#54The problem with mandatory developer registration, is that it gives Google and Governments the ability to veto apps. It would not be unsurprising for a government to tell Google they must block any VPN apps from being installed on devices, and Google using the developer requirements to carry out the ban.
> The problem with mandatory developer registration, is that it gives Google and Governments the ability to veto apps.
Don't they already have that power?
Re: Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
#55Re: Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
#56Wrong approach. Vote with your wallet instead. My next mobile phone will not have OS from Google (not from Apple).
What phone are you considering? Sailfish still doesn't seem very successful and mobile Linux barely boots on anything that performs better than a fifteen year old budget device.
I'm kind of hoping Qualcomm's open sourcing work will also affect the ability to run mainline Linux on Android devices, but it's looking like a Linux OS that covers the bare basics seems to be a decade away.
Re: Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
> community needs a better response to this problem than "nuh uh, everything's fine as it is." You can also cut yourself with a kitchen knife but nobody proposes banning kitchen knives. Google and the state are not your nannies.
> You can also cut yourself with a kitchen knife but nobody proposes banning kitchen knives. oh nice, i love this game. you cant carry a kitchen knife that is too long, you cant carry your kitchen knife into a school, you cant brandish your kitchen knife at police, you cant let a small child run around with a kitchen knife... literally most of what "the state" does is be a "nanny" (not agreeing or disagreeing with go…
I think it's important to consider the intent of those laws, too. They are primarily or even exclusively to prevent you from hurting others with knives. They are not really intended to protect you from cutting yourself in your own home. So I think the parent's comment still holds weight.
Re: Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
#58For me this change is a problem not just because of the ID upload to Google but mainly because it's another nail in the coffin of native software solutions. It increases friction and anything that increases friction is bad. Concretely, my original plan was to provide an .apk for manual installation first and tackle all this app store madness later. I already have enough on my plate dealing with macOS, Windows, and Li…
I personally see an unmoderated app store as more detrimental to the end users. The harm happens at scale.
That's the status quo, though. Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store are essentially unmoderated. The sheer scale of them and both platforms' technical architectures prohibits either company from properly validating their stores' contents - they can't even catch the easy cases, like all the apps that impersonate ChatGPT. The main thing they manage to do is inconvenience innocent indie devs once in a while.
The result is unwarranted trust from users in stores that are full of scams.
Apple and Google effectively built malware pipelines under the guise of security.
Re: Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
#59Dear Undersigned, I have an APK I would like you to install on your personal phones. No, I won't tell you who I am. Please let me know when you are comfortable with this.
Nice strawman. People want the ability to decide for themselves whether or not to install some APK, they are not saying every APK under the sun is trustworthy.
Re: Open Letter to Google on Mandatory Developer Registration for App Distribution
#60The real issue is that mandatory registration doesn't actually stop scammers. It stops hobbyist developers and small open source projects. Scammers will use stolen identities or shell companies. They already do this on the Play Store itself. The $25 fee and passport upload haven't prevented the flood of scam apps there. Meanwhile F-Droid's model (build from source, scan for trackers/malware) actually provides stronge…
The permission problem also affects normal apps. Things like KDE Connect quickly become useless without advanced permissions, for instance.
No permission system can work as well as a proper solution (such as banks and governments getting their shit together and investing in basic digital skills for their citizens).