Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AOSP project is coming to an end

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 135 posts

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#71

Post by lipowitz »

vbezhenar wrote: post #58
pzo wrote: post #7

sad, was thinking to switch from iPhone to pixel 10 in few months once released exactly for the reason that is clean android and gives and escape hatch to use grapheneOS or lineageOS or calysOS. Any other android phone manufacturer that is supported by any of those projects? Most devices supported except pixel devices are few years old.

I tried to switch from iPhone to Pixel and switched back. Modern Pixel is absolutely not clean android. It's a mess of misfeatures. There's no clean android. iPhone is lean and compact compared to Android. GrapheneOS is solid, but built by security freaks, so unless you're a fan of OpenBSD, it makes little sense to use it. And any custom ROM locks you out of many important apps, like banks apps, NFC payments, etc (un…

I don't see what OpenBSD has to do with it. Is this like liking reliability in a car meaning you are a Toyota fan?

I've had no trouble with banks, brokers or payment networks on GrapheneOS but I don't use crap like company-X pay wallets..

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#72

Post by alerighi »

terhechte wrote: post #20
transpute wrote: post #13

Hopefully AOSP Pixel device support is merely delayed, not ended, since Pixel is the only way to get Debian Linux ("Terminal") VM + desktop mode support, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43973395 . With Apple's ongoing refusal to enable VM/JIT support on iOS and iPad, Google Pixel + GrapheneOS + Debian is a very competitive 2025 offering.

This is my biggest iPad gripe. I understand the security, but just make it a new "entitlement" that is only given to UTM, Parallels and VMWare fusion. Or make it a "developer mode" that you can only enable if you pay $99 a year. I'd be fine with that, but the whole iPad is unusable for any kind of software development and I'd love to be able to travel with just an iPad because for everything else I do while I'm trave…

It's not about security. Apple doesn't want to open on external applications, including the one run in VM/emulators, because it wants every software to pass from the AppStore. Not because security, but for the fee it has on app store purchases.

If it opens to having VM, you could just run another OS in a VM (Windows, for example) and install normal software on it (like the desktop version of most programs) and not pay the AppStore fee.

It's only a commercial reason, not a security one.

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#73

Post by subscribed »

sebtron wrote: post #9

As far as I understand this only concerns Google Pixel devices, and AOSP "coming to an end" is mostly speculation. Is this going to affect other manufacturers too, e.g. the Fairphone[1]? [1] https://www.fairphone.com

How does the firmware upgrade cycle looks like? Does their secure element securely throttle pin brute force? Does their hardware offer modern memory protection?

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#75

Post by transpute »

alerighi wrote: post #72
terhechte wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my biggest iPad gripe. I understand the security, but just make it a new "entitlement" that is only given to UTM, Parallels and VMWare fusion. Or make it a "developer mode" that you can only enable if you pay $99 a year. I'd be fine with that, but the whole iPad is unusable for any kind of software development and I'd love to be able to travel with just an iPad because for everything else I do while I'm trave…

It's not about security. Apple doesn't want to open on external applications, including the one run in VM/emulators, because it wants every software to pass from the AppStore. Not because security, but for the fee it has on app store purchases. If it opens to having VM, you could just run another OS in a VM (Windows, for example) and install normal software on it (like the desktop version of most programs) and not pa…

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2025/6/1.html

> For more than 90 percent of the billings and sales facilitated by the App Store ecosystem, developers did not pay any commission to Apple.

Would the remaining 10 percent of App Store sales have meaningful competition from a CLI (no GUI) terminal VM that enables development workflows on iPad?

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#76

Post by subscribed »

nixass wrote: post #26
input_sh wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most devices supported except pixel devices are few years old. That pretty much sums it up, there's a reason all of those custom ROMs pivoted to supporting basically just Pixels. Apart from Pixels, your only options are Fairphone and a few years old Chinese models (Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus), none of which are even close to state-of-the-art hardware. Custom ROMs are pretty much dead, this just might be the final na…

> (Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus), none of which are even close to state-of-the-art hardware. Well, Pixel is arguably pretty shitty hardware as well

Sadly it's also only reasonably secure Android phone :(

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#78

Post by kokada »

transpute wrote: post #66
jampekka wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put it in the bootloader then. The pretence that Apple makes these things for security reasons and there's absolutely no way in the world to make it possible is a bit ridiculous.

Apple shipped hypervisor support back in iOS 16, then removed it! https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2024/07/25/0900

This is a nice post of things that bothers me in the Apple ecosystem: arbitrary limitation after arbitrary limitation.

I didn't know about the Apple Watch couldn't pair with an iPad, and I don't think even an Apple fanboy could make an excuse for that one.

Re: AOSP project is coming to an end

#80

Post by ohdeargodno »

vachina wrote: post #41
onli wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can on ROMs like LineageOS. The Play Store is part of the Gapps package some users install during the installation of the system. Alternatively there is microG and the Aurora Store, so the play store itself isn't needed. I assume that is the same situation on raw AOSP.

Some apps will delegate parts of itself to be downloaded from play store on demand. Meaning without play store, some apps literally won’t work because it will fail to launch the component needed to be downloaded from play store. I’ve came across this in app when accessing some secure flows, like adding credit card numbers.

This only means that microG hasn't implemented the on demand feature download API for dynamic features.
Post reply on HN