What we really need is competent government oversight that would prevent this outright as monopolist. There’s no chance of the current US doing that, but it could come from the European Union. That has become the only governmental entity that is still interested in protected individuals from predatory corporations.
Failing that, I’m wondering if we could establish an organization of “designated developers”. People who volunteer to become the contact point for various applications, whether or not they are actually involved in developing them.
The other thing that might eventually help is to sue Google, on a massive scale, every time they leak developer info. The leaks are going to happen. If they become expensive enough it could force change. Of course, that kind of after-the-fact attack is not likely to revive the development efforts that will have already been destroyed.
Well one thing to keep in mind is that a new OS could arise out of necessity to maintain software independence from the US - China has already done so with HarmonyOS (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarmonyOS), and I would be very surprised if something similar never arises from another nation or collective in the future.
Of course the ultimate casualty is that we are moving towards a de-globalized future in the US’s flailing attempts to prevent it. I wonder how strong app compatibility will be across platforms in a few years.
That really does not address my concerns, not one bit.
Not meant to. Its all a grift to charge rent. Donate to a good fork of droid.
Yeah I’ve decided I’m switching to GrapheneOS at the end of the month. I got my phone for free from my carrier, and while it’s not locked in any way, I don’t wanna risk them seeing the phone any differently before the “please keep it on our network for 90 days” condition is fulfilled.
A secret list of who is approved and who is banned. Yeah, I understand anonymity is good, but the list won’t actually be secret, but pretending it’s secret will help hide Google’s censorship moves.
I really hate this timeline. 99% of companies pushing users into walled gardens. Governments and banks forcing people to use invasive apps that only work in those walled gardens. Slowly our control is eroded, yet your average user couldn’t care less as long as they get to watch their TikTok slop for a few hours a day.
Until a Linux phone becomes viable I’ll be using a rooted custom ROM and avoiding banking/government apps like the plague.
Times of Cyanogenmod and Paranoid Android was the golden years when we were excited about how awesome tech would be as opposed to how it’d be used to exploit, control, and spy on people.
When you try to inform them. They make the argument about having nothing to hide or what do they care. Everyone harvests data anyway. It does not matter.
Absolutely. The general population is braindead when it comes to privacy and digital rights and it gets worse with newer generations as 24/7 connectivity and everything being online is the norm for them. As long as they can watch some social media slop they are satisfied. I believe the proliferation of AI will accelerate this as people delegate their critical thinking faculties to machines and accept big tech’s propaganda as gospel. Chatgippity knows best, right?
Until they complain about paying for “Youtube Red” (or was it “Redtube You?” Terrible name).
Then you hit them with “oh yeah fuck paying them, do you have an android?”
“No, iPhone.”
“Oh well then yeah you’re fucked. If you had android I could transfer you the F-Droid APK and you could download Newpipe, or Grayjay, or YTDL-nis. iPhone doesn’t approve those apps in the store and you can’t install software from elsewhere, so, sucks.”
After a few of those and some “I can teach you how to pirate anything if you have a PC or android phone” they start thinking about it ime. Still few converts, but some!
Pinephone and other options are looking really good right now.
I can take a wild guess on what devs and projects are on google’s internal blacklist…
Enough with the bs!
It’s crazy. And yet it’s so expected. And I feel so powerless. I’d be able to adb install but we need wide access to open source tools now more than ever. Especially tools for organizing. And that seems to be what they’re targetting. 😔
There’s always Graphene and mobile linux distros you can switch to if it gets bad enough.
A substantial amount of open source devs will probably just give up working on their projects if they can no longer be installed by most users.
That will also affect Graphene users.
Graphene will also only work until Google one day says “You know what… No!” and stops allowing it on their (new) hardware. I don’t think that’s far in the future.
That is exactly why the GrapheneOS team is already in talks with an Android OEM.
This potential cooperation only buys time and doesn’t solve the core dependency: if Google ever discontinues AOSP, both GrapheneOS and any OEM partners would face the same dead end.
Hopefully by then linux phones will be usable as daily drivers (which afaik they currently are not, mostly).
Currently they’re not close at all to being daily drivers (can speak from experience as I’ve flashed Ubuntu Touch onto a phone a few days ago), but their development has sped up a lot lately, so here’s to hoping for the best!
No, they aren’t.
My hope as well. 🤞🏼
Build the OS and the users will come.
I can. My family can’t and most people we need probably couldn’t either. That’s what I mean by wide availability of open source tools needed for organizing. And that’s what their aim is. Make it difficult enough for most who’d need such tools so they just don’t do it.
It’s our job to help the technical developers make more progress on the projects so the transition can be smoother for the everyday people. We’re builders not bystanders.
Today’s repairmen, hobbyists, developers, and technicians may end up being tomorrow’s champions of ensuring one can own what they use.
That’s what true FOSS projects taught us, right?
Well said friend!
Evil ass hybrid alphabet - Mossad agency
