Google's new developer verification requirements starting September 2026 will force ALL Android app developers to register with Google - even those avoiding the Play Store entirely. F-Droid, the tr...
This will face legal hurdles, especially in the EU and China. It reminds me of the time Microsoft played shell games with Chrome and Firefox and then lost eventually. That being said, it will kickstart a new mobile OS arms race, not necessarily to beat Android but for choices.
Above all, the organisation behind it must be or become sufficiently robust, like GNU/Linux, in order to take up the torch, but that requires a lot of financial backing.
It’s not impossible, but in my opinion it won’t happen right away and is likely to take time to implement. Once that’s done, the only issue left will be installation (for users, that is).
That was a possibility, but if I’m not mistaken, it was either Chrome or Android.
And it seems to me that an agreement was reached on Chrome (but no sale planned). So I won’t make any predictions. Especially when you see the lockdown on Android, something is brewing, and Google wouldn’t allow that if it had to part with it.
Unless they are preparing for the separation by establishing as much interdependence as possible between the two in case of a takeover by another company with a partnership. Because otherwise, the community will know how to unravel and clean up the Android project.
EDIT:
If anything, I’ve just looked into it and it seems to be stronger than ever after this antitrust ruling. Because what you heard was more what the Ministry was asking the judge to do.
In the end, there will be no dismantling of Android or Chrome, no loss of revenue for “partners” such as Firefox.
There is an end to exclusive contracts, notably to prevent it from imposing Gemini or Chrome, but ONLY for one year. There is also data sharing, particularly related to parts of its search index, but no total obligation and nothing on advertising data, only interactions as a supplement.
It’s as if it were letting its competitors take a look at its library without giving them the keys to the safe.
And to top it all off, it seems that Google is preparing a gradual merger of Chrome OS and Android for “greater hegemony”. If anything, I’ve just looked and it seems to be stronger than ever after this antitrust decision. Because what you heard was more what the ministry was asking the judge.
In the end, there will be no dismantling of Android or Chrome, no loss of revenue for “partners” such as Firefox.
There is an end to exclusive contracts, in particular to prevent it from imposing Gemini or Chrome, but ONLY for one year. There will also be data sharing, particularly related to parts of its index, but no total obligation and nothing on advertising data, only interactions.
As far as I understood from Graphene, when Google released the source code for Android 16, they also stripped all the reference code for Pixel devices.
Historically, Google would ship the code for Pixel and a software emulator as “reference designs”. Now, it’s only shipped with the emulator.
The Graphene Team needed to reconstruct the pixel code from the Android 15 release. Fortunately, the divergence between Android 15 and 16 was minimal, but I’m certain the division will widen as time goes by.
yeah i think i understood it like that too, but they sounded confident that this was a one time issue and that it wont really be a problem now for future releases
but sry i am not really sure what you mean/ the connection is to the topic/ the os/ driver and firmware blobs?
I’m surprises at how SailfishOS has a limited presence. This could be that moment. HarmonyOS is sick. I’ve seen it in action and it is on another league.
This will face legal hurdles, especially in the EU and China. It reminds me of the time Microsoft played shell games with Chrome and Firefox and then lost eventually. That being said, it will kickstart a new mobile OS arms race, not necessarily to beat Android but for choices.
would love it if some viable linux based alternatives came out of this.
Erm akhshually, android is linux /s
Android can be forked at any time
Above all, the organisation behind it must be or become sufficiently robust, like GNU/Linux, in order to take up the torch, but that requires a lot of financial backing.
It’s not impossible, but in my opinion it won’t happen right away and is likely to take time to implement. Once that’s done, the only issue left will be installation (for users, that is).
I am not really sure, but i think i have read that google and android has to split up because of cartel laws at some point,
and i hope this might make things better (considering that like a lot of different companys do rely on android after all), but it is a fragile hope
That was a possibility, but if I’m not mistaken, it was either Chrome or Android.
And it seems to me that an agreement was reached on Chrome (but no sale planned). So I won’t make any predictions. Especially when you see the lockdown on Android, something is brewing, and Google wouldn’t allow that if it had to part with it.
Unless they are preparing for the separation by establishing as much interdependence as possible between the two in case of a takeover by another company with a partnership. Because otherwise, the community will know how to unravel and clean up the Android project.
EDIT:
If anything, I’ve just looked into it and it seems to be stronger than ever after this antitrust ruling. Because what you heard was more what the Ministry was asking the judge to do.
In the end, there will be no dismantling of Android or Chrome, no loss of revenue for “partners” such as Firefox.
There is an end to exclusive contracts, notably to prevent it from imposing Gemini or Chrome, but ONLY for one year. There is also data sharing, particularly related to parts of its search index, but no total obligation and nothing on advertising data, only interactions as a supplement.
It’s as if it were letting its competitors take a look at its library without giving them the keys to the safe.
And to top it all off, it seems that Google is preparing a gradual merger of Chrome OS and Android for “greater hegemony”. If anything, I’ve just looked and it seems to be stronger than ever after this antitrust decision. Because what you heard was more what the ministry was asking the judge.
In the end, there will be no dismantling of Android or Chrome, no loss of revenue for “partners” such as Firefox.
There is an end to exclusive contracts, in particular to prevent it from imposing Gemini or Chrome, but ONLY for one year. There will also be data sharing, particularly related to parts of its index, but no total obligation and nothing on advertising data, only interactions.
Here are my sources in French:
… except for the binary os blobs, that’ll need to be reverse engineered to run it on… well… any real hardware /s
but these are firmware and drivers from the hardware manufactures and not the OS
As far as I understood from Graphene, when Google released the source code for Android 16, they also stripped all the reference code for Pixel devices.
Historically, Google would ship the code for Pixel and a software emulator as “reference designs”. Now, it’s only shipped with the emulator.
The Graphene Team needed to reconstruct the pixel code from the Android 15 release. Fortunately, the divergence between Android 15 and 16 was minimal, but I’m certain the division will widen as time goes by.
yeah i think i understood it like that too, but they sounded confident that this was a one time issue and that it wont really be a problem now for future releases
but sry i am not really sure what you mean/ the connection is to the topic/ the os/ driver and firmware blobs?
HarmonyOS already exists in China as a fork of android, I wonder if something similar may spawn from the EU
I’m surprises at how SailfishOS has a limited presence. This could be that moment. HarmonyOS is sick. I’ve seen it in action and it is on another league.