It was only a matter of time. The run lasted a good while.
I'm not going to submit to this crap. I'm sick of it. Nor I am going to IOS. It'll be a Linux phone for me or a dumbphone with tethering and a laptop.
Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
661–670 of 1001 posts
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#662> Since we implemented verification requirements on Google Play in 2023, we have seen firsthand how helpful developer identification is in stopping bad actors from exploiting anonymity to distribute malware, commit financial fraud, and steal sensitive data.
This is truly some orwellian newspeak bull-shit.
For those who don't know, Google Play verification ensures critical apps like banking apps DO NOT WORK in privacy-focused ungoogled ROMs like LineageOS, unless you install the usual google spyware at the OS level. Basically soft-requiring you to buy into the duopoly.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#663The details are paramount, and they are missing here.
Some of us code our .APK, then do an `adb install`.
This already requires enabling a system flag ("developer mode -> allow etc.").
It only makes sense that a similar flag would allow to install whatever we want (especially and in particular, our own software).
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#664Any developer working on this ought to be ostracised, divorced and shunned by their family.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#665This is really bad. I think that most people on HN will agree with that. The problem is that most normal people (HN is not normal - mostly for the better) don't even understand what sideloading is - let alone actually care . How can we fix this? (aside from making people care - apathy enables so many political problems in the current age, but it's such a huge problem that this definitely isn't going to be the impetus…
This certainly won't solve the problem, but I would at least like to banish the term "side load", which is a kind of Orwellian word that takes something everyone used to do all the time and makes it sound obscure and a bit nefarious. Maybe we, the tech literate, can start calling sideloading a "free install" or something. When asked, we can clarify that the 'free' stands for both freedom, and not paying middlemen 30%…
> When asked, we can clarify that the 'free' stands for both freedom, and not paying middlemen 30%.
Every time you have to clarify, it’s another opportunity to lose the asker. It’s not a good strategy to use a term we have to keep defining or that people may misunderstand. Stallman and the FSF continue to make that mistake and we have had decades to understand that’s a bad approach.
Call it something else, like a “direct install” or something better. You can still have a deeper meaning to it (“direct because it bypasses the App Store middleman”) but make it something people can understand fast. You can’t fight marketing with ideology alone, you have to beat them at their own game.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#666It will be interesting to see how they handle packages from the various f-droid repos. F-droid builds and signs all their apps themselves, so will all of f-droid be covered by a single signing key and developer account? Or will the fact that they take apps from lots of folks bar them from an account?
Initially they will help them. Once it becomes widely accepted that sideloading isn't a thing, they will ban them.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#667This deplorable company has just condemned humanity's right to open computing. They sold themselves as open, smothered out all other open competitors, and then once they had complete dominance over the open phone market did this. Even if Google backtracks now. Governments will latch on to this idea just like they have with client side content scanning. This will never go away. Thank you google you despicable pieces o…
I hope something like SailfishOS [1] could take off. They do have Android support, and maybe even by pressure, they could get banking apps working in the EU via that.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#668Our only choice are 2 american companies, Google or Apple Why did we let that happen?
It's not the case anymore. HN is not reflecting it, but HarmonyOS is very much a 3rd option. Huawei got banned from using Android, and they decided to start a mobile OS from scratch. They are binary compatible with Android, so most apps work straight away. Unless they use play services.
They wrote it from scratch in C++ so they could avoid some of the legacy cruft in Android. And they are getting adoption. It's a major OS in China and in many developing countries (phones with it are cheaper, and it flies on underpowered hardware!)
Before we judge the magnitude of this event (HarmonyOS existing and being successful), let's remember that last time anyone tried to disrupt the duopoly Android-iOS, it was MS, the largest company on earth by market capitalization at the time. And they failed.
Well, it very much looks like Huawei is not failing. We in the west don't see it as much, because propaganda is working well. But last tech conference I attended (GITEX Berlin, if you are wondering), had their app available to download with... 3 logos, not 2. Harmony OS was there. This is a major win for consumers all over the world.
And this being HN, I hope the inevitable comment "but China!" is slightly more informed that the average internet user.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#669If your businesses idea doesn't work without you being evil, you deserve to go bankrupt. I perceive a tendency to assume it is necessary for a company like Google to maintain full control over our ecosystem to further our progress and maintain order. However, we should know by now that this isn't the case. You don't have to be evil to be useful. See GNOME, GrapheneOS, Steam, KDE, Wikipedia, Linux or Mozilla (previous…
Steam is interesting example. Many evil things in gaming: Battle Pass, LootBox, came from them, or being made popular by them.
Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android
#670I use linux on nearly all my PCs / servers. I do think about moving my phone to more open platform (fairphone, or rooting phone), but I don't like phones in principle, so I do not install stuff there. I do not do things on phone.
I have my apps as web pages, so I access them from phone web browser. I do not care about phone apps that much.
I use fdroid for calendar, gallery, and music though.