Somehow I can run a webserver and anyone can browse it but if I make an app I need a DUNS number? What year is it?
Couldn't the CA system, for all its problems, suffice?
Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
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Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#532Every day we stray farther from the premise that we should be allowed to install / modify software on the computers we own. Will once again re-up the concept of a “right to root access”, to prevent big corps from pulling this bs over and over again: https://medhir.com/blog/right-to-root-access
You can't steal something if you can't own it.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#533I really need the more open Linux tablet and phone makers to hurry up.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#534So what's the solution? What's the reaction of semiofficial Android forks? Should we switch to Huawei now? Should we then have two phones? One with Android fork and one with some other "official" OS?
Ok, it seems having GrapheneOS on phone would suffice [1].
1. https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/25235-google-wants-to-verif...
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#535Every day we stray farther from the premise that we should be allowed to install / modify software on the computers we own. Will once again re-up the concept of a “right to root access”, to prevent big corps from pulling this bs over and over again: https://medhir.com/blog/right-to-root-access
I see no other way than regulation to force the two to provide drivers and manuals for alternative OS makers.
We should've nipped it with Apple, but there was so much _whatabout_ing that the conversation always go sidetracked with assertions about the free market and what not. It turns out, there is no free market, and we're just living in someone's managed device walled garden.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#536Before quickly running to dismiss this move, please at least do your research with regards to the situation in the countries mentioned in the article, especially Singapore and Thailand. Side-loaded malware has been an epidemic in SE Asia, and there are MILLIONS of dollars stolen (mostly from pensioners!) via side-loaded malware disguised as gambling apps - the local population is particularly suspectible to gambling,…
So make it an unlockable feature with a big red warning saying something like: 'If you unlock this feature, your money might be stolen, malware could infiltrate your system. You take full responsibility and acknowledge that you are tech-savvy.'
I'm sure if my grandma saw something like that, she wouldn't click it. This way, people who want to stay in a closed garden are protected, while those who want full control have it. The current implementation seems designed for state interests, not the people's.
It shouldn't be impossible. Not every FOSS developer will want to register, or be mature enough, or may be from sanctioned countries, and so forth.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#537The further into this corporatized "vision" of technology we go, the more I relate the elves in LoTR who basically said "our time is over" and then just leave Middle Earth. There is no turning back. Generations of developers will grow up thinking every form of communication and technology by virtue of existing needs a corporate groundskeeper. Government identification will be required for most things. I don't really…
>Unfortunately, it actually is the best means to keep a society of the masses functioning more safely online
Imagine if people felt that way about electrical power distribution? Every single thing you ever plugged in required a license to be validated at the time you tried to use an outlet?
For me, it's obvious that better ways of doing things exist, but I'm weird, and possibly a crank.
The solution, in my opinion, is to do the same thing we do with power in the home... limit the damage that can be done by anything plugged in, only giving away a limited capability for power delivery in a given outlet.
The analogous way to do this in an operating system is to discard the idea of providing all of the computing resources available to every program you run, and limit it in some way. The "permissions flags" we've all come to dread, first with UAC in Microsoft Windows, and now on our phones, obviously suck, and won't work.
The way to do it on a desktop, is to allow the user to choose exactly which resources a program may use, at runtime, by dialog boxes similar to the ones they already use, but with the additional behavior that the operating system enforces their choices, instead of just praying a program operates as intended.
On a phone, I don't have as strong an intuition, but I'm sure it can be worked out, both in a friendly, and secure way that doesn't require full time checking with consent from our betters in the corporate overlord hierarchy.
We can have secure and user friendly compute, both in our desktops, and in all our devices.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#538Official announcement: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/08/elevating-... More info: https://developer.android.com/developer-verification https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ... Personally...we all know the Play Store is chock full of malicious garbage, so the verification requirements there don't do jack to protect users. The way I see it, this is nothing but a power grab, a way…
Doesn't Windows have the same thing aka Code Signing?
https://www.electronforge.io/guides/code-signing/code-signin...
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#539Is that after the top execs join the US Army? [0]
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#540Every day we stray farther from the premise that we should be allowed to install / modify software on the computers we own. Will once again re-up the concept of a “right to root access”, to prevent big corps from pulling this bs over and over again: https://medhir.com/blog/right-to-root-access
> Every day we stray farther from the premise that we should be allowed to install / modify software on the computers we own. I’ve never agreed with this premise. I buy things that mostly meet my needs and desires in every other walk of life. I’m personally OK with extending this to computers as well.
This is based on the false assumption that the free market solves every problem.
But the reality (which was correctly identified by Adam Smith himself) is that the effort required to enter a market can sometimes be so high, that we practically end up with oligopolies, see mobile OSs. They require a network effect to make sense, so the entry cost is not just developing the product, but also to somehow convince basically every other player to consider you a target platform - which is a cyclical problem that you can't just bootstrap yourself into. Even Microsoft failed at it, even though they were paying hefty sums to companies for apps working on their OS.