- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Starting next year, Google plans to require all apps installed on certified Android devices, including sideloading, to come from developers it has verified. Many Android developers see the move as a power grab and have started a movement to “Keep Android Open.”
The petition, organized by software developer Marc Prud’hommeaux, seeks to rally support to challenge Google’s plan and to rouse regulators to the antitrust implications of allowing Google to oversee the verification of all Android developers working with Android Certified devices, but does not affect alternative Android or ASOP builds like /e/OS, LineageOS, or GrapheneOS.
Android being open is a myth designed to entice low level techs who don’t know any better. AOSP is open, but nobody’s trying to run that. The thing that ran on Nexus phones before and Pixel phones now is not open source, but it was forked from open source. Just like the relationship between chromium and Chrome.
Android can’t keep open because it isn’t open. What you want is for bootloaders to remain unlockable so you can flash custom firmware. A close second is for a common hardware platform so custom ROMs can be ported from device to device with relative ease.
These days AOSP isn’t really open either
They delay releasing source code while shipping devices with the resulting binaries
Right, so it’s still open in the broader sense, but if it does or does not fit one open source license or another… kinda beside the point. The point being that what you buy when you buy Android is not open source, and that’s the problem, especially when you’re also looking at an iPhone and saying “well this one is open source and that one is not.”
Of course, you can still say “I can install whatever I want” about the Android phone. Apple has been unkind to developers of certain apps, but then again, so has Google. Both platforms banned emulators. Both platforms allowed them back — Google did it many years before Apple, though. Both platforms banned Fortnite because of Epic’s misdeeds going against the terms of both stores. Apple was forced to re-list Fortnite in the US and maybe some other areas, but not everywhere. You’ve always been able to install the Epic Game Store on Android, you just gotta jump through hoops.
The real issue is ad blocking. Google is obviously trying to stop that. On my iPhone — I use both platforms, by the way — if I install the Google app and Google something, and go to a site, like, say, Fandom (the gaming wiki site), I get ads. I don’t get ads on my iPhone because I know what I’m doing on both platforms. But Google will tunnel around my ad blocker to deliver ads. That’s sketchy AF and why that app is not allowed on my phone. So on iOS, you can block ads via DNS, same as on Android. The apps work exactly the same, they do the same thing. They do the same thing as a Pihole, essentially. They set up a DNS server (presents as a VPN on iOS) which blocks hosts. Of course, a rooted Android phone can take it a step further and edit the HOSTS file, which is way more effective. I didn’t think AdAway was in the Play Store (I always sideloaded it, installed from apk), but, that’s the kind of thing Google is going after.
It’s just petty AF. You’re gonna charge iPhone 17 money for a phone that performs like an iPhone 11 (at least the CPU; obviously, Google’s AI stuff is far in advance of Apple’s, and their cameras are pretty smart too, but my old ass doesn’t give AF about AI), they’re selling my personal data out the back door to boot? Yeah, that’s a hard no from me. I mean, yeah, I do still use Android, I have a Galaxy S10, I kinda want a newer one but I don’t trust any of the OEMs (or Pixel). My iPhone is newer (16 Pro Max), so the Android is the next to be replaced. I just hope in 4-5 years when I’m looking to do so (the S10 still runs awesome, by the way), it’s worth doing. Not that Apple is any better, they’ve been boring since, I dunno, a few generations back, and their next big thing is a foldable? GTFO. I miss when phones were exciting.