Lmao “safer” FOH monopolistic pieces of shit.
I’ve never wanted to get all my devices totally detached from google until recently.
They are going full mask off right now.
They’re prepping to be the surveillance service for the global fascist oligarchy.
An accurate title would read something like: Google wants to make side loading apps more difficult by adding extra steps under the guise of security in order to maintain market dominance and continue spying on the user.
Yay, Google adding another hurdle for alternative app stores and their developers…
F-Droid store/repo is safer than Google Play Store. Google’s own store has many shady apps, including spyware and occasionnal malware.
I don’t get the argument that Play Store is safer than others.
Google play services is spyware
I know my sideloaded apps are safe. I have far less confidence with the apps Google allows in their App Store.
Every year that goes by mobile computing gets less and less interesting.
Might as well just buy the cheapest one that will do the job and call it done. So sense in spending top dollar very often when it is just a severely limited black box, like a video game console.
Sure, to make it safer in the same way Microsoft made you safer by making it harder to install Linux with UEFI.
Isn’t it actually easier with UEFI since you can have multiple bootloaders and updating windows doesn’t overwrite any other bootloaders? I think the issue arises from secureboot
Ridiculous, mother of bullshit! Switching to Linux appears to be the only option left for a personal computing device.
Just turn off Google Play Protect and it’ll let you sideload whatever you want.
Where did you hear this? I’ve seen a couple of articles on this now but none of them have mentioned its specifically play protect or that it can be turned off
You can’t seriously actually trust that turning it off in the Google owned app they control or update will be meaningful. I’m really sick of people claiming it is, and I hope this will get them to realize that.
If you want to crush it fully, disable google play store as a whole, and make sure to tell your friends too because if that solution doesn’t get more popular there might not be third party apps to install since the devs will just quit.
I dunno, you’re the one claiming stuff that isn’t necessarily true (yet). This is a proposed update to Google Play Protect. You don’t have to have Google Play Protect enabled, and disabling it doesn’t really impact anything unless you’re the type of person to just download an apk from unverified sources.
I keep play protect enabled in case I download anything unsafe.
Not really necessary if you limit your APK sources to trusted sources like apkmirror or github.
Github is not a trusted source. Anyone can dump apk files over there.
I really hope phones get better Linux support soon… it really isn’t daily driver material for most phones at the moment.
In this time and age, do you still doubt that Linux might be outlawed for consumers? To prevent criminal activity, of course /s.
They already consider you a criminal if you use grapheneOS on a pixel. It’s not a joke.
Honestly we need a community OS like Android/Chome OS
I like Linux but it would be really cool to have a OS that was less modular and more purpose built. I feel like there is enough people interested that we could raise some money to hire some developers. On think Chome OS and Android get right is the hassle free unified experience.
There’s GrapheneOS that I think would try to address this problem — secure, proper architecture, compatible with some major app stack (e.g. Android apps). It’s AOSP-based, but they’re already thinking ahead up to a point where they would be forced to fork it and even work with OEMs to create their own phone hardware for it. There are a couple of threads on their Mastodon.
I don’t know how much they would be able to achieve, but I would pay for such system.
Graphene doesn’t play nice with others
Yes, unfortunately. It’s their con, but also their pro at the same time. It’s bad because they end up isolated from everyone else playing nice with each other, and then no one wants to deal with them, but they also don’t agree on compromises that might hinder security or the stability and development of their project. And I respect that. That is partly a reason why they created probably the most secure and private AOSP distrubution nowadays.
they don’t compromises that might hinder security or the stability
I call BS on that one. It feels more to me like they are seeking power and control. They could seriously benefit from working with other projects but they don’t.
Wait until you find out what Android is under the UI.
While its true Android runs on the Linux kernel, its not Linux. There are many differences and restrictions.
rips off mask
It is a vendor kernel!
Hopefully there are Linux phones available in near future.
If not, I’ll probably buy an iPhone. When both phone OS are locked down, might as well get the one that’s supported for years.
Fairphone have 7 years of guaranteed support, possibly longer with custom Roms. :P
Fairphone run android tho?
Fairphone has guaranteed 0 years of support in my country.
Not available in India unfortunately.
Clove Technology ships worldwide, but you might have to deal with your country’s customs and might have to pay import fees.
Even if you can buy it, you can’t file a warranty return if you are outside Fairphone’s small support area.
Fairphone will no longer allow custom roms
Let Android be free, fuck off Google.
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You can’t convince me this wasn’t Google’s plan from the very beginning.
- Open source it, Gain market share,
- Push ads/capitalize on data harvesting
- Corner OEMs to include their malware
- Gradually make it harder for ROM developers to gain access
- Lock it down
- Profit
They stole tons of features from custom ROMs but never implemented the ability to turn off internet for specific apps so they could push ads and track users.They made turning location “on” a requirement to scan wifi, calling it a security feature. They re-enable “background data” on all apps with an Android update. These are just off the top of my head.
Chromium works towards same goal as well. They never wanted to defeat apple, monopoly, they wanted to become part of the duopoly.
At some point that stops being sideloading.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Year of the Linux phone in 2026?
In the meantime, we’re already verifying signatures for sideloaded apps. Can’t say the same about play store apps.
Great, Apple style app notarization is just about the last thing I want on my damn phone.
