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We really really need an open OS for mobile phones that is actually competitive with commercial offerings.
I don't think the OS is the problem - it's that some of the critical service/apps people rely on (government ID, banking) only exist for the closed systems. Third party OS's try to "solve" it through various container approaches running the official apps, but since they see that as a security problem it's not something you can fully trust to be working at all times.
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B-b-but brand integrity! Customers love that! (Shareholders too)
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These guys forget that they are an incredibly stark minority of users. Most users cannot be trusted to have free reign over their own system. We all know this to be true. You've troubleshot your grandma's Jitterbug phone that somehow had Internet Explorer toolbars installed onto it, you know this to be true.
Maybe there is no reasonable case for a developer to have any say over what you - specifically you, the guy who knows what "*nix" means - do with your hardware. But there are plenty of reasonable cases for the other 99.99% of users.
Posts like this are like a mechanic saying "There is no reason for a manufacturer to force drivers into having a catalytic converter in their own engine". Like... okay, maybe your car is special because you're a literal expert, but the rest of the world need that thing because they can't be trusted to manage their emissions on their own.
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wrote last edited by [email protected]
Is this the context? https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/115091392102147470
[email protected] - Google will block sideloading of unverified Android apps starting next year
Google says it's no different than checking IDs at the airport.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/google-will-block-sideloading-of-unverified-android-apps-starting-next-year/?utm_social-type=owned -
My feed is curated by the Illuminati
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The "reasonable case" is the law, and they will use it against you without mercy
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All those "apps" are websites. You could say NFC is special, but so is gps.
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That's the only reason I'm still on android. If I install a different OS I won't be able to login to do anything government related. I won't even be able to pay with my credit card online. I could get a physical code device from the government, but I'm not gonna lie, I really like the ease of access of having an app for that stuff, instead of a seperate device I have to have on me at all times.
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But these users can fuck their phone up perfectly fine with the offerings provided by the horribly curated play store and thats even intentional. I dont doubt there are also techilliterate users who seek out dodgy sites to sideload some shitty apk. But i dont believe google one bit this move is made to make the experience more secure for this subset of users. Its about as much control as possible over their platform because the line must go up.
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You know, it's true - I have never heard a Linux user refer to something as sideloading, even though Linux is the platform that originated official software repositories.
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Is this the context? https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/115091392102147470
[email protected] - Google will block sideloading of unverified Android apps starting next year
Google says it's no different than checking IDs at the airport.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/google-will-block-sideloading-of-unverified-android-apps-starting-next-year/?utm_social-type=ownedNo difference from checking IDs at the airport? So Google wants a government body to handle their platform on their behalf and to ensure a common playing field where at the airport I can choose whatever vendor I’d like?
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No difference from checking IDs at the airport? So Google wants a government body to handle their platform on their behalf and to ensure a common playing field where at the airport I can choose whatever vendor I’d like?
wrote last edited by [email protected]REMOVE SHOES BEFORE BOOTING ANDROID.
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My feed is curated by the Illuminati
That's what they want you to think.
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nudging the EU with a stick
Come on, do something -
wrote last edited by [email protected]
That's fine. They should be LEGALLY required to allow ME to make that call and offer an avenue to allow me to remove it all.
Nobody is saying everyone's machine MUST be completely open and insecure.
But that's a far cry from giving me no recourse to make MY hardware do what I want it to.
And before anybody screams "liability", they're going to hold you to an EULA anyway - throw a couple lines in there.
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That would be true, if the Play store was curated any better.
You can still upload malware to the Play store. It happened numerous times, both on the Apple side, and on the Google Side.
Restricting your choice from 2 places of dodgy places to 1 dodgy place does nothing.
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You know, it's true - I have never heard a Linux user refer to something as sideloading, even though Linux is the platform that originated official software repositories.
This does feel like a bit of a double-standard to me. I’ve hated how Microsoft and Apple have introduced app stores on Windows and macOS and try to push people to only install from there instead of directly from the developer. And yet on Linux the advice seems to be never ever download directly from the developer; you should only download from the package repository provided by your OS (which sure feels like an App Store). And that package probably wasn’t even provided by the developer or the OS but some random volunteer that you just assume has good intentions.
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Posts like this are like a mechanic saying “There is no reason for a manufacturer to force drivers into having a catalytic converter in their own engine”
It's more along the lines of "There's no reason for manufacturers to forbid my mechanic from installing a perfectly fine catalytic converter just because said manufacturer doesn't like it"
Giving manufacturers full control over the software users run will not end well. Why should google tolerate a browser that runs an adblock extension? Currently they do so because the alternative would be losing users to alternatives but if they have all android devices under control and make deals with most of the browser devs (it's all chromium already and firefox is almost entirely financed by google) then you'll find yourself forced to watch ads. This is what they're slowly creeping towards.
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You already can't "sideload" without navigating the options and going through a big scary pop-up saying you better know what you're doing. In other words, it's already locked down enough.
This is not about making grandma safe. It is about control.
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This does feel like a bit of a double-standard to me. I’ve hated how Microsoft and Apple have introduced app stores on Windows and macOS and try to push people to only install from there instead of directly from the developer. And yet on Linux the advice seems to be never ever download directly from the developer; you should only download from the package repository provided by your OS (which sure feels like an App Store). And that package probably wasn’t even provided by the developer or the OS but some random volunteer that you just assume has good intentions.
If you used Linux before the repos were fully developed then you understand why they were created.
Who else remembers "dependency hell?"
Corpos just took the same idea and twisted it into something else.
