Google is tightening control over Android under the guise of ‘security,’ but this crackdown on sideloading is a direct hit to digital sovereignty and FOSS. I’ve written about why this matters for our privacy and the future of open platforms. What do you think—is this the end of Android’s ‘open’ era?
So Android is open source, right?
What is to stop the community from just making and releasing their own android version, and be done with it?
Read GPL v3 and why it was introduced in the first place. Code being open source won’t do much.
it’s got an open source base layer; but it’s got enough closed source layers on top of it to make the open source part alone useless for today’s mobile environment.
nevertheless, the things like graphene, lineage, postmarket, etc. are efforts to make that base layer effective and they will soon be your only options if you want to use android without having to provide your gov’t issue ID so that your actions can be tracked for “terrorism”
Which means they need to do some serious work on supporting other hardware because right now its just impossible to use graphene for 99.9% of the people out there
Yes, Android is open source. But the thing is, Google’s clampdown on sideloading isn’t just about the OS code itself. It’s really about controlling the whole app ecosystem and making it harder for people to install apps outside of Google’s own channels.
Sure, folks can fork Android and make their own versions — that’s been happening for years with projects like LineageOS. But the tricky part is keeping all the apps working smoothly without Google’s proprietary stuff like Play Services. Without that, a lot of apps just don’t behave right, and the user experience takes a hit.
So basically, just having Android’s code open isn’t enough to keep it truly open and easy to use. The real control is in the ecosystem around it, and that’s what Google’s tightening grip is all about.
Then lets get the Wine equivalent for Android? Have an open sourced OS that will still run google play bullshit
Without that, a lot of apps just don’t behave right,
Agree with what you said. And if I may add a little? Apps not behaving right extends to things average people see as essential in thier life. Like banking apps refusing to run on “untrusted devices”.
Techies can get around most of it. At least today, maybe not in the future. For example use the bank’s web site directly not their app. But my nontechie friends have no idea. From their perspective, something like an alternative to Android simply doesn’t work for what they are used to.
Vendor lock-in.
We might want to encourage people to stop using the term “sideloading” and instead say “installing” because that’s what it is; using a different term for it makes it seem unordinary and unintended.
That is a fair point. ‘Sideloading’ is definitely a corporate term designed to make basic ownership of our devices feel like a ‘workaround’ rather than a right. I used it here because it’s the language Google is currently using to justify their crackdown, but you’re absolutely right—it’s just installing software. We shouldn’t let them control the vocabulary of our digital freedom.
We shouldn’t let them control the vocabulary of our digital freedom.
You’re apparently taking an LLM controlling your vocabulary just fine, though, given both this comment and post were transparently written by one.
If a single company has this level of control over our devices we’ve already lost.
Can you imagine a company like dell decided tomorrow to only allow installation from their specific vendor locked market? People would just not buy those products, you wouldn’t be demanding dell let you install linux, you just buy something else.
Even if i had to use a pc that’s 10+ years old, id choose that over using a new pc that can only run vendor approved software. I cant imagine anything a new devive like a phone might have that would change my mind about it.
Well, what about M series macs and SDM laptops, which are deliberately designed to be hard to reverse-engieneer.
