And, ironically enough, they publish the announcement on Google Groups.
Literally the second post is somebody suggesting that they really should move the forum ASAP.
Google have declared Droidscript is malware
81–90 of 665 posts
Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware
#82It's seriously time to re-embrace the idea of ownership and control of our devices, and reject Android and iOS altogether. Developing for those platforms has become worse and more restrictive over the years, and this kind of crap is now just everyday news. How good are Pinephones[1]? Are there better alternatives? [1] https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/
The biggest problem with "alternative" platforms is just the lack of app support.
I used to have a Nokia N9; great phone. But it didn't support WhatsApp and I was out on the loop on the WhatsApp chat all my other coworkers were in.
Then there's things like banking apps, flight check-in apps, food ordering apps, dating apps, etc. etc. Can you do without those? Sure, of course. But if I want to order food where I live then the only option is to use an app.
No platform will have any chance of any sort of adoption unless it supports some way of running those apps. There are options here, for example Jolla/Sailfish OS can run Android apps (no idea how well that works in practice; the latest update says it supports "Android 9, and the support for Android 10 is already nicely on the way").
It's a "vendor lock-in" ecosystem that's worse than the Windows lock-in of yesteryear IMO.
Since I don't really use my phone all that much I decided to "just use an iPhone" (because it's the only phone that's not huge), even I think they're really horrible.
Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware
#83> We don't allow apps with any code that could put a user, a user’s data, or a device at risk. If Google thinks the ability to execute arbitrary code puts users' data at risk why don't they go the full iOS route and ban everything, from scripting apps to other JS engines beside Chromium? I am so sick of their behaviour, the only reason I am still on Android because things like F-Droid still exists and iOS is even mor…
>> "Can't you just make us a general-purpose computer that runs all the programs, except the ones that scare and anger us? Can't you just make us an Internet that transmits any message over any protocol between any two points, unless it upsets us?"[1] The War On General Purpose Computing continues. Far too many business models depend on selling general purpose computers as "appliances". They presume it is possible to…
It's inevitable, given the scale that has to happen before ASIC become remotely profitable and how cheap general purpose computers are today.
Just buy some cheap SOC from the market and load the software, close it in a blackbox and call it a day. It's going to be the future now. God forbid they also talk to internet and runs an OS version from 2014 and never gets patched. It's a botnet paradise.
Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware
#84It's seriously time to re-embrace the idea of ownership and control of our devices, and reject Android and iOS altogether. Developing for those platforms has become worse and more restrictive over the years, and this kind of crap is now just everyday news. How good are Pinephones[1]? Are there better alternatives? [1] https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/
Maybe it's just time to see phones as what they are - a phone. I don't really care what software is ran in my truck, as long as it works (And that's why I'll not buy a Tesla). It's a phone, use it to call text and guide and browse some internet. That's it.
I envy your chill. We all do need to take a deep breath at times and realize it's truly a first world problem.
With that said your truck analogy isn't perfect. Your truck will last as long as you keep it going. That can be 20 years or more. It would be more like having a truck that the doors do not lock anymore after 2 years and you cannot fix that you must buy a new truck if you don't want thieves.
Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
That said, an open-source version of this on F-droid would be hella cool, but wrapping every API with Javascript sounds non-trivial.
> wrapping every API with Javascript sounds non-trivial. I am not an expert in JS or the Android API, but I wonder if you couldn't do it automatically? If types line up closely enough, I would think that you could get a list of Android APIs (pull it from AOSP if you have to) and mechanically translate to a JS API.
If Android's JVM supports reflection, you could do it dynamically at runtime, and there are probably already JS+JVM integrations that would work.
Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given the issues that termux has hit, they're certainly moving that way. https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-An...
Once there is no way to run Termux that will be the end of the line for me and I've been on the Android train since the G1 days. I am ok with installing it from F-Droid or adb as long as it remains runnable. (I guess I am in the bargaining phase) I don't think that I am ok with not being able to easily run my own executables since I rely on running a few Go utilities in the Termux CLI.
I'm personally planning to replace termux with a full chroot; my phone is rooted, so all I need is an app to give me the actual terminal emulator and I'm good. This would be fine for running the odd Go utility, but is likely to be insufficient if you're doing anything with the actual Android API (which termux has been great at). And of course, in the long term this is just another reason for me to hope the pinephone gets to prod-ready ASAP:)
Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware
#87> We don't allow apps with any code that could put a user, a user’s data, or a device at risk. If Google thinks the ability to execute arbitrary code puts users' data at risk why don't they go the full iOS route and ban everything, from scripting apps to other JS engines beside Chromium? I am so sick of their behaviour, the only reason I am still on Android because things like F-Droid still exists and iOS is even mor…
>> "Can't you just make us a general-purpose computer that runs all the programs, except the ones that scare and anger us? Can't you just make us an Internet that transmits any message over any protocol between any two points, unless it upsets us?"[1] The War On General Purpose Computing continues. Far too many business models depend on selling general purpose computers as "appliances". They presume it is possible to…
The battle really parallels the larger right to repair debate. (Especially if we realize the latter is probably is better called the right to exercise control over purchased goods.)
Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware
#88I can think of at least two other apps that do this—which I won't name in case Google is watching. 'Not to mention Termux, which I can't live without. Why is Droidscript being singled out?
Off topic: I won't be buying a new phone for a looong time so I can keep Termux's functionality.
Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, Termux is the most used app on my phone and I don't know what I will do when they have to migrate to SDK 29. I will probably buy another phone and install LineageOS.
Curious, is the Librem 5 an alternative you would consider?
Sure, it is a good alternative. But I still need a phone to do some work, like Whatsapp and banking apps (which I don't think Librem supports). So I am waiting for it to become stable and a little mature.
Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware
#90The writing style of the piece looks like a political mailer. > The Google Play system has declared DroidScript is Malware and accused us of committing Ad Fraud! Needless to say, we are extremely upset and totally flabbergasted at this shocking allegation! That kind of hyperbole sets off all my BS detectors. As I go through the back and forth, DroidScript speculates this: > Our main guess was that one of our users wa…
> What I don't see is that they ever went back to the policies to check if that was legit. If it wasn't and you tell Google, "right, that was totally a feature but we've removed it," then, you just indicated that you deliberately implemented a feature that violated the terms of your agreement. A user reverse-engineering your app to pull out its AdMob ID is neither a feature nor something the app dev can reasonably be…
It happens a lot more often than people think. By some estimates more than half of all ad clicks are bot-driven fraud.