- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
You must log in or register to comment.
Still a bad joke. If the custom ROMs can’t get past this it’s either dumb-phone or linux phone next. No compromise.
I believe they confirmed uncertified devices will not have these requirements, so technically degoogled Android should still be fine.
You don’t get Google services, but then again that’s also true of every other alternative.
It’s all jumping the gun for now. We’ll see where this goes.
Google have already pulled the Pixel-line from the AOSP device tree. I’ve read that their security commits to the open repo will slow significantly down. They’re talking about moving to a unified OS along with CHROMEOS (Still. Again.)
AFAIK, all custom ROMs are based on AOSP. I’m not optimistic.
Yeah, no, it’s not gonna be good.
But neither is Linux on phones.
Again, this is responding to the guy saying he’s willing to go to dumbphones or Linux phones. If he’s that desperate/aggressively ready to use sub-par solutions, degoogled Android IS an option and it will probably be more functional, despite not being good.
ready to use sub-par solutions
I’m already on a degoogled android ROM, I consider it the superior solution.
linux phone
I know that given this community, a lot of people are going to be on a Linux phone already.
But there are some very real drawbacks to Linux phones in 2025. It won’t be a practical replacement for most people.
-
The hardware is not remotely-competitive with high-end hardware that Android can run on.
-
Everything I’ve seen has suggested that power usage isn’t as good, probably because Android has had shit-tons of engineers working on cutting power usage for many years.
-
Some of the reason that I’d want to use a phone in the first place is for access to the Android app ecosystem. Like, that one app that your employer or bank insists you use or you want to use to update firmware on some Bluetooth device because the vendor doesn’t support
fwupd. Maybe it’s possible to use Waydroid and a Linux machine for some of that; I don’t know about all. -
GNU/Linux has a large software library, but a lot of it is not designed around a touch UI.
-
One major benefit of Android is that it does a lot to help eliminate a couple things that the general population has had trouble with. The harm from installing malware is mitigated by more-or-less isolating apps. A lot of users just don’t understand the concept of managing memory usage; Android just suspends apps transparently. A lot of users apparently don’t have a great understanding of a filesystem, and the Android app ecosystem tends to hide the filesystem.
And you may not care for your own use, but without scale, it’s hard to get support from hardware vendors and such.
That being said, I remember 25 years back or so when Linux was “never going to be a real server OS”, when it was never going to have games, when it was never going to make it big in the embedded world, and so forth. It often took time, but it inexorably showed up. And the kernel, at least, made it big on smartphones. GNU/Linux can be pretty hard to stop in new markets. But…it can also take a while to get there.
I agree with all this bullets and would love to add one more: the Linux user experience and community. You have to accept that your operating system will be an ongoing project in and of itself, and that the Linux community is not newbie friendly and has a lot of troubleshooting deadends.
Linux on the desktop still isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I can’t imagine a phone being any better. I still had to sneakernet WiFi drivers onto a laptop with a new Linux install, this year. Same shit I was doing 15 years ago.
-
I love your stance!
Boycott the hell out of android!
I wonder if Epic games will sue them again. Epic has their own side loaded APK for the mobile Epic Games Store.
Wasn’t this prevented by the last lawsuit?The verification is supposedly not linked to play protect at all. Presumably Epic will be a verified developer even without being on Google Play and therefore their apk’s will remain installable regardless of distribution method. If Epic were blocked then I imagine they’d absolutely have grounds to sue.
The Republicans have managed to insert enough of their sycophants throughout the American legal system - most notably including the Supreme Court - to ensure corporate interests will always win in the end going forward. The invasion of the Supreme Court is especially insidious because those are lifetime appointments, and they’ve ensured their recent additions to it are young enough to stay in place for a very long time.
This has already had effects in allowing Trump get away with literal murder by them expanding the power of the Oval Office to absurd amounts with recent “decisions.”
All federal judge appointments are for life.
That means all those courts of appeals judges and lower court judges he appoints are also there until they leave or get better jobs higher in the judiciary food chain.
Ugh. I was unaware, although I guess I should have realized it from the fact they have to be vetted by the Senate. Can you tell I’m no legal eagle? I hate how laws are treated by most people as if they’re the very definition of what’s right and wrong when so many of them blatantly aren’t.
But what about EU?
guess im stopping updating my phone on android 15 and security update september congrats google
They keep trying to lock it down more and more. Why do they even think that’s a good idea? The entire reason Android is successful in the first place is that it’s an open system, so it can be easily and cheaply adapted for various products. If they’re gonna just turn it into iOS (Google skin) and shove more and more functionality into random proprietary components, I wouldn’t be surprised if companies start forking Android or just do their own thing like Huawei is now.
Why do they even think that’s a good idea?
At some point becoming a "registered developer " will become a source of profit for Google.
I don’t think so, most of the open source apps on fdroid are already on the play store
When they squeeze out the option of installing from the ad-free sources like F-Droid, and everybody who isn’t techie enough to use ADB has to install from the Play Store, then yes - Google will be increasing profits.
Not quite what the other commenter was saying, I’ll grant, but effectively the same end result.
I simply don’t think it’s a move related to money, or at least not directly related to money.
I open the play store less than once a month, if they remove fdroid I guess I’ll open it twice a month? How much money can they make for the 2 rows of sponsored apps they show me (which I don’t tap anyway) in the 30 seconds necessary to find an app and press install?
People installing apks outside the play store are already a minority. Beside myself I think I know 1 person who may be using fdroid, maybe 2
I guess it could be a really dumb monetary choice? You never know with corporations
I get that you can only relate your personal experience, and that many people such as yourself don’t know enough about things outside their personal experience to factor them into their perspectives on things.
But, really?!? Just because you don’t do those things - let alone frequently - doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of others who actually do.
ETA: Not only that, but I think you’re missing something as regards to ad revenue. The apps installed from Play Store virtually always come with ads added for Google to profit from. Not so much on F-Droid.
So you think there’s a lot of people who just browse the play store everyday?
If my personal experience is not enough what about yours? Have you done some kind of research?
About ads that’s just a personal decision by the developer and Google has nothing to do with it. Most developers just publish the same fdroid version on the play store without ads
i think there are quite the range of users, and that neither of us should assume our personal experiences are “the norm.” That said, why do you think there’s been so much discussion about this? There’s obviously a good amount of people concerned, seemingly for good reason.
I’ve not done any significant comparisons between the two app sources, but in what little experience I do have seeing apps in both locations I’m going to guess about a third of those from smaller developers (i.e. not the Mozillas of the world) had ads in the Play Store incarnations. That’s a completely unscientific personal guess, however.
Not that it’s relevant, anyway - the point is having options taken away without legitimate reason for doing so. Google’s own history with malware regularly being found on the Play Store proves that their “justification” is control-freak bullshit. If this is allowed, who knows what other profit-enhancing rules Google will impose further down the road when they’ve eliminated most any escape routes? Open source devs may have to choose to use ads in order just to pay for the privilege of being installable without having to dig too deeply into their own pockets.
How much money can they make for the 2 rows of sponsored apps they show
That wasn’t my point.
If they can lock it down so only registered devs can put apps on the system, then some MBA is eventually going to start charging devs a registration fee.
Probably the 3rd party app stores, the rules the judges gave them in America.
Is there currently a way to run adb from the phone itself? This should be possible, right?
Without rooting, there’s Shizuku for some limited rights access. Otherwise I know there (was?) a way to connect another phone via USB to act as a the “development PC” to issue ADB commands from, but I’ve never personally done it so I can’t tell you much more than that.
ETA: Wireless debugging is a thing, too. It being enabled (along with actually being connected to some kind of Wi-Fi) is required for Shizuku to start up (& can be shut off without ill effect once you’ve started Shizuku).
Interesting, might be a solution if Google doesn’t shut it off somehow.
So there’s nothing new here other than a link to their Q&A video.
And perhaps more importantly a subtle reminder that the Q&A blog post in question includes a link to a Google survey for developers you can freely add feedback to by entering your email.
Following the links instead of reacting to the headline has its perks.
I feel like googles hands may be getting forced on this. There is a growing authoritarian movement across the globe and android sideloading was one of the ways to avoid surveillance as that info was mostly private and offline. I wonder if they are being forced by shithole regimes (like USA now) to go in on the government verifying all apps or get blocked in that country for bypassing “national security.” (Wouldn’t surprise me if the UK and USA were two of those countries)
Remember LaLiGa said last year that Google should have the ability to remotely remove piracy apps from someone’s device without their permission?
I admire the generosity you’re giving Google here, but even if fascism wasn’t on the rise globally, I could see them doing this just for the all-important purpose of making more money. Rent-seeking by way of requiring an account (and soon after, a credit card) to access a feature that was once open and free.
Google has been killing free services for over a decade now, I have to imagine they’ve long decided to monetize and advertise on every possible channel and wavelength.
What if the big money makers behind Google are the same fascist, that are backing Trump now? 🤯
Yeah, that’s our reality. I was only speaking in hypothetical.
