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.
But Google also stopped publishing device trees for their devices. And they are withholding the Android source code until release. Android is being developed in secrecy behind closed doors now. Public access to security patches is delayed by four months.
Google is increasing their chokehold on the platform. Development and maintenance of custom ROMs is getting more and more difficult. More and more vendors such as Samsung and Xiaomi are removing the possibility to unlock the bootloader. Installing a custom ROM was never a mainstream thing, and it is increasingly becoming impossible for most people.
Yep. As I wrote: Google does shitty things. It’s time to try to establish an alternative OS for mobile.