Recently Google decided that in the future for an app to be installable on an Android device, the developer of this app needs to be ID’d and registered at Google. They claim this is in order to “to better protect users”. However, I think, this is a move to get more control over the Android ecosystem, and the data they can collect with it. If anyone who wants to develop an app for Android devices has to be registered with Google, this puts all the power of who to allow distributing an app to Google.
Furthermore F-Droid shows, that safe app stores can exist without registration, neither of users nor of developers. There is zero malware or spyware on the F-Droid store. What there is on F-Droid is thousands of beautiful, useful and, most importantly, safe apps. And this entire ecosystem is at risk, because Google wants to gain more control over its users and over the Android operating system.
No, probably a very small minority. Still, for those F-Droid is THE “store”. So, I don’t get how that “kills” F-Droid in any capacity. Anyhow, one could hope, that people who love F-Droid but are not de-googled yet would try out a custom ROM to keep their favorite store.
Ah I wasn’t aware FDroid ran on custom ROMs. I think perhaps the fear is that the userbase goes way down and kills any desire to keep up the project. I hope that isn’t the case.