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Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

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Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#521

Post by RedComet »

natch wrote: post #382
RedComet wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A straw man in your favor, maybe. Shall we compare the 100 least popular of each store? Those are more likely to be outright malware on Play.

The popularity in app stores has no bearing. Some problem apps can be on no store, just locally installed. This has been well covered in the past and you are playing catch up. It’s about abusive household members who spy on their grown children, siblings, roommates, girlfriends, parents, etc. with apps they install on their devices if given a route to do so.

The sideloading change doesn't protect against abusive household members, though. Simple lock screen hygiene and periodic reminders about invasive permissions (e.g. accessibility & location) would do more. And let us not even pretend that is the true motivation for the change. An incidental consequence that you find defensible is simply that.

Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#522

Post by _aavaa_ »

zylstra wrote: post #454
jamesnorden wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I may as well switch and be able to use iMessage and FaceTime with them I, too, love vendor lockin.

I have no idea why iMessage and FaceTime are draws when Signal is available.

For messages not much reason, for video the comparison is a joke.

Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#523

Post by floxy »

moffkalast wrote: post #220
floxy wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Graphene is still Android.

Truly the OS by and for people who are into excessive nitpicking. I suppose that's what you want for security.

How is that a nitpick? Seems like Graphene is for those who want to have finer-grained control of what Google tracks. You are still funding Google through a hardware purchase (Pixel phone). You are still using Android. And it seems to be a big selling point that you still have access to the (sandboxed) Play Store Apps and services.

Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#524

Post by echelon »

spwa4 wrote: post #455
Palmik wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disabling the ability to install arbitrary apps, like ReVanced, etc. benefits other parts of Alphabet. In general, making anti consumer decisions is also easier when you know you can fall back on income from other units.

Then why does Google make so few anti-consumer decisions? I mean, compare Google with Facebook. Surely we can agree Google is the better behaved of those two. Apple only allows software on their macbooks and mac mini, and every release of MacOS it's more locked down. Everything else, from iPhone to the watch, is 100% locked down. Likewise, every version of Windows tries, again and again and again, to lock down progra…

A smartphone is essential to operate in the modern world. Facebook is not necessary at all.

Google and Apple are holding the entire world hostage.

I can't even order food at half the restaurants I visit any more without a Google or Apple device. They're all using smart phone QR code menus. It's absurd.

Imagine what happens when they're the only way to pay. When they're the only form of government ID.

Do we really want these devices to be locked down and not owned by us? This much responsibility should be a business liability imposed by the governments of the world, not unlimited permission to tax and coerce without impunity.

Imagine if your government was as free as your smartphone. We wouldn't have elections. We'd have no freedom, no peace of mind, forever renters. Bad choices would be imposed upon us as defaults. The government would make us more dependent upon them. If we had a business, we'd be taxed 30%, told we couldn't have a relationship with the customer, made to jump through frequent hoops, deal with constant friction, have to pay protection racket money to avoid ads, have everything we do monitored and controlled, be subject to takedown whenever and for whatever reason, not be allowed to issue updates or use our own technology, have the government themselves compete with us and look at our data...

The governments of the world need to end this.

Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#525

Post by palata »

scbzzzzz wrote: post #498
palata wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google refusing to provide device trees for new Pixels things definitely look headed that way So you're just speculating.

With all the things google is doing for custom os last few years ( play protect, no major updates to asop and bundling updates to closed source google libraries etc). It is not speculation it is predicting with high certainty. Google wants custom os market to die and they are doing it brick by brick. We should Open our eyes and look at the timeline and realise it is not speculation and actual reality before it will b…

> Source: i am an owner of device with custom os and i know things i have to do to fix broken apps.

Doesn't mean you can predict the future with high certainty.

Source: I have been a happy user of custom AOSPs for years.

Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#526

Post by p0w3n3d »

MattyRad wrote: post #265
xandrius wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check UbuntuTouch, it's really a nice third option. The OS is refreshing and the dev community active. We do not have to choose the lesser of two evils this time.

I glanced at Ubuntu Touch, but its device compatibility looked severely lacking ( https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/ ).... I have old Pixel phones I could potentially try it out on, but the last Pixel phone that is officially supported is the 3a. So that is a bummer.

Just buy a FairPhone. That's what I'm considering to buy ATM.

Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#527

Post by p0w3n3d »

jolmg wrote: post #327
cons0le wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if banking and messaging apps will work on it in the future

Re: banking, not until adoption of non-Android and non-iOS devices grows. To break this chicken and egg problem, one can get an Android phone and use it exclusively for the banking app, treating it like one of those hardware security keys the banks used to give out in the early 2010s. One used to just leave it at home; maybe take it to work occasionally. Another option is to live like the early 2000s and go to an ATM…

Ubuntu touch has an Android compatibility layer

Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#528

Post by ta1243 »

iamnothere wrote: post #109
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any of the BSDs (well 2BSD is the oldest on a quick search), the linux project, the GNU C lib, etc. Just because you can't think of it, it does not mean it doesn't exist. Did BSD defeat Linux? No. Which BSD is even the right one? BSD's biggest success is living on as the foundation of Apple's Cathedral in XNU, and PlayStation's Cathedral in the PS4 and PS5. Did Linux stay a bazaar vendor? No - 90% of code has been…

Wtf is a bazaar vendor? A bazaar-style project is a project with a variety of contributors who aren’t necessarily affiliated with a central org, where decisions are made at least partially through consensus. Linux still fits this description although it’s more of a hybrid model at the moment, as decision-making is highly centralized. But as a free/open source project, that centralization exists with implicit communit…

ffmpeg and vlc jump to mind. They certainly aren't a central org -- other than in vlc having a shared like of traffic cones. My understanding of the ffmpeg dev team is they barely tolerate each other.

Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#529

Post by abenga »

rs186 wrote: post #394
ethbr1 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better hardware, yes. But you'll be reminded quickly how comparatively shit Apple's software is. Aka the litany of "Oh, yeah, everyone knows that's broken but just deals with it, because there's no way to fix issues on a closed platform other than {wait for Apple}."

I will take Apple's software over Samsung's ad infested, buggy & ugly software any day.

There are quite a few more Android phone makers than Samsung.

Re: Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

#530

Post by fsflover »

xandrius wrote: post #245
itg wrote: post #2

Installing any app I want outside the Play Store was the primary reason I decided to go with Android, despite most of the people I know using iPhones. If I can't do this anymore, I may as well switch and be able to use iMessage and FaceTime with them.

Check UbuntuTouch, it's really a nice third option. The OS is refreshing and the dev community active. We do not have to choose the lesser of two evils this time.

Ubuntu touch has a locked-down filesystem, like Android does. Mobian, PureOS and postmarketOS behave much more like regular GNU/Linux.
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