I mean, getting verified as a developer is a similar pain in the ass in other ecosystems. I recently got an LG smart TV and the developer mode there automatically runs out and deletes all unofficial apps after 9999h if you don’t manually go into the developer app and extend the time.
My hot take is that you shouldn’t have to claim that you’re a developer to sideload content. It should be allowed for normal users 🤷
Don’t be cartoonishly evil?
Openness was the primary reason I always stuck with android. Without that, fuck them. If I have no options I’m just gonna use Huawei.
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If some company did this with computers 20 years ago they would probably go bankrupt the next year. This is what happens when tech oligarchies are allowed.
This is almost what apples infrastructure is…
The main difference is they (Apple) have been clear with their design choice since the beginning and they had their own market. Google is imposing this change on many users who did not want such an ecosystem to start with. But I suppose the market share of people who won’t care about this will be large enough that they will survive, because they are a tech monopoly.
Yeah, it’s pretty crazy comparing this to some of the stuff Microsoft got in trouble for with Internet Explorer back in the '90s.
And then after doing all that you still need to confirm a scary warning every single time you install an app. As if it wasn’t enough.
Can anyone explain how this isn’t an illegal monopoly? I’m genuinely curious
The public institutions responsible for tearing apart monopolies would have a field day with google if they were even remotely as powerful and willing as they used to be.
Because there are more iPhones in America.
Ignore that Apple also makes it impossible to side load apps.
Aren’t there alternative stores for iPhones in the EU and Japan?
I’m not criticizing you because that’s the typical term, but we really need to stop calling it side loading. It’s just installing. Calling it that makes it sound like something special and different.
Apple was the canary in the coal mine for this behavior in the EU. Apple was forced to allow third party apps, so Apple mandated that everyone had to register with them, and pay them their yearly fee, and then developers had to pay Apple another fee (core technology fee, still double dipping), and governments were completely fine with that. (And developers will happily jump through more hoops to develop on iOS).
Google saw this and decided if they can, so can Google. And this technically is the easier of the two as at least this doesn’t require every developer to register with Google this way.
Really good point to illustrate how liberal reform efforts just redirect capitalist control into an increasingly contrived legal system.
Doesn’t matter when the CEO sits at the table with the US president. If it’s illegal it won’t be enforced. Or it’ll be made legal. Or it won’t be made illegal. And if you want to make it illegal in your country - there’s punitive tariffs coming your way from the US president.
Because there are alternatives. No one is forcing you to use Android.
I’d be interested in seeing a statistic of how much this reduces the impact of intentionally malicious apps. I know it’s not the real motivation, but still.
Given that the official Google Play store has distributed intentionally malicious apps in the past, I’d say it reduces it by approximately none.
It’s possible that part of why those attacks don’t really happen is precisely because it’s already so controlled. That said, I still think this is BS. Don’t mistake me as defending Google here.
I’m sure it’s a non-zero effect.
It’ll also paint targets on the backs of people who are using newpipe, greyjay, and pipepipe. I’ll be interesting to see if they try to coorelate people running adblock as pirates and start dumping google accounts. You could run those apps logged out prior and remain anonymous. It’s very likely package installed will rat you out now.
De-googled Android ROMs:
- GrapheneOS
- LineageOS
- /e/ OS
- Volla OS
Non-android, non-apple smartphones:
- Pinephone
- Pinephone pro
- Librem 5
- Volla Phone 22
- Jolla Phone
- FuriPhone FLX1s
And pretty much every feature phone out there (way too many to list)
FuriLabs mentioned 😲🥹
I absolutely love my FLX1s
De-googled Android ROMs:
Aren’t most of them de-googled? Usually you install gApps separately, unless that’s changed
Non-android, non-apple smartphones:
Not non-android out of the box, but just to add to your list: Ubuntu reports that nearly everything except VoLTE works on the Fairphone 4 and 5, but sadly they don’t support the 6 yet. PostMarketOS shows more issues
I love my Pinetime watch. Really rooting for that company.
With these steps, you might as well unlock your bootloader. WTF.
Confirm with biometrics… WTF?!
People should have the universal right to live a cellphone-free life. In my country, it is assumed that everyone uses an iPhone or a Google Android phone as if it was part of your own self.
Wouldn’t that just mean enter your lock code if you don’t have thumbprint lock enabled?
I’m confused by this comment. The outrage is that if you want to use your phone, in the modern smartphone sense of the word which uses apps, then you have to do so by Google’s rules which excludes a lot of apps you might want to run, or jump through ridiculous hoops apparently including biometrics to do so with your own device. That’s terrible, but, this particular outrage is quite separate to one’s ability to live a cellphone free life. I’m not going to pretend like that’s not increasingly unfeasible, but this issue with identified developers doesn’t have much to do with it since it’s only an issue for you if you’re even using a phone in the first place and then it just makes using it a much shittier time then it ought to be, it doesn’t lessen or increase the dependency upon phones in general.
It’s about control, in the end. Citizens are now linked by the governments to their phone numbers, as well as companies make it a priority to get your phone number and data.
Somewhere in the middle of not using a mobile at all and having a device that monitors everything you do, non stop, are owning a dumb phone and having some control on the apps you install in your smartphone.
They used to publish a whole book that had your name, and often address linked to your phone. B don’t perfect that this fake outrage by you is anything but disingenuous for what phones and any other hundred identifiers of you as a person to the government or anyone else. Your argument is infantile in it’s temper tantrum for it’s argument.
If you are fine with it, more power to you. You can call me whatever you want, I don’t know you and couldn’t care less. But when I see older people struggling with bank representatives demanding them to comply with ridiculous policies, well, I’ll keep myself damn angry as long as it takes.
Still worth it for revanced!
Stolen from elsewhere:
You are not getting screwed on this. Google is just applying lube.
All for a scam, that rarely happens…
and worse, scams that are ALL over the play store
good linux phones can’t come soon enough
For anyone reading this, donate to PostmarketOS if you can so we can escape google forever!
they dont ship to the us. also the mobile-focused software is still early on linux, but as long as it is daily drivable I can handle that.
they dont ship to the us
You can get your own device and install it for free, globally.
Unfortunately, Sailfish OS uses a proprietary (closed source) android compatibility layer, as well as a closed source UI.
For the parts they have open-sourced, they implementrd a CLA that contributers must sign. It’s the HA-CLA-I-ANY license, which specifically allows them a perpetual Copyright and Patent license, and permission to relicense your code contributions to a more restrictive license which enables them sell or package it into a closed-source proprietary app.
Personally I’d be more comfortable supporting the development of PostmarketOS instead, since it is completely open-source with no CLA, meaning no chance of any rug-pulling in the future.
Having a CLA like that just screams “Were going to monetize all of this one day” lol
They already do that.
Exactly, it’s like a corporate wolf in FLOSS clothing, and huge red flag.
Disclaimer: yes, SFOS is made by a (small) for-profit company. Always has been.
For the parts they have open-sourced, they implementrd a CLA that contributers must sign.
Just to clarify, this applies only to previously closed core components. Not app developers. But thanks for the info.
I love the constant comparison to PMOS, which has exactly 0 daily-driveable devices. SFOS has been usable since 2013, and honestly I don’t see a rug-pull coming up. Call me naive.
It’s a European company btw.If you’re comfortable with it being a private company that has proprietary software and utilizes a CLA for its own components, then by all means, use them.
Personally I’m at a point where I distrust any essential software that isn’t GPL licensed, as that’s the only way to ensure that it’ll always be in the community’s hands. Otherwise, we’re just hedging that Sailfish won’t someday potentially be sold to a different larger publicly traded company, and utilize the potential lock-in factor that the proprietary parts of Sailfish and the CLA’d components bring.
PMOS is certainly not in a usable state for the average person yet, which is why I suggest people donate to it so it can become more polished and support more phones.
Pre ordered my jolla a couple of days ago. So sick of tech monopolies
Graphene os is a good alternative to android. Its privacy and security focused, and also does not come with google serviced preinstalled. The only problem is that its only supported on google pixels, and porting it to other devices is impossible.
Didn’t I hear that they’re planning to release graphene on Motorola?
Yes, that will be my next phone provided the price is decent and it has a headphone jack and everything else I need
I’m hoping for a MicroSD card slot. I’m on a Note 20 Ultra which I planned to run for far longer but it got the infamous “random green line out of nowhere” problem. I think Sony is the only one who still puts it in flagships
Pretty much. On a Sony Xperia 1 V and it works great (best phone I’ve ever had). Downside is that the bootlocker for the US version is locked (AT&T thing) so I can’t just put lineageos on it or something, so I’ve been on the lookout for a replacement recently, and the pickings are pretty sparse.
I’m probably gonna have to ride out the stupid Google bullshit for a few months until there is a decent alternative, as the graphene phone from Motorola probably won’t be released this year (and even then it probably won’t have a headphone jack and a micro SD card slot) and pretty much all of the Linux phones available now don’t really meet my needs (also no headphone jack on something like the jolla phone, which as someone used to Linux for years, I know Bluetooth headphones aren’t much of a solid option).
Shoot I also recently got the freaking green line a few weeks ago. Yeah I also refuse to have a phone without a microsd option, why TF are they doing away with that?
To sell cloud storage.
Thats it, planned, and not yet released. But its good that at least in future there will be more options for a smartphone with foss operating system.
Also, while in practice it would propably never happen, i hope that in the future, more smartphone makers will put alternative operating systems on their phones, or at least make it easier to install third party operating systems on their phones, like it is done on googles own pixels.
You never know. For the time being, foss supporters and enthusiasts are the minority. But with the rising surveillance and information restrictions, such as it is happening with ID/age verification checks in many countries, people will start looking for ways to walk around all this pathetic chicken wire. VPNs seem to do the job for now, but I wonder if maybe alternative OS will gain traction in a not so distant future. They would allow for more flexibility and options
Really hope they’ll have an alternative to Google Wallet. One thing I’d miss.
