Again not on custom ROMs.
(And could help the push of new alternatives os)
How long until they patch out getting developer mode working on you phone without a registration, requiring you to pay for it and also take a “short” AI generated crash course in app development and monetization?
So, will an app like this
https://codeberg.org/muntashir/AppManager
which uses (w)adb, be able to install apk as I currently do?
Or will they also fuck this up ?
i love how google will basically destroy the worlds most popular mobile operating system just to protect youtube premium revenue
thats my theory too.
This is the final push I needed to switch to GrapheneOS. Thanks Google! Now, if only I didn’t have to give Google money for the Pixel so I can install GrapheneOS.
This will kill the FOSS app ecosystem regardless. Android forks of any form should be abandoned. GrapheneOS can be a decent stopgap though.
Sorry for the downvote, but I see this take repeated here on Lemmy so often and it just makes no sense. This will not kill the FOSS app “ecosystem”. Nothing whatsoever changes for FOSS ROMs like LineageOS or GrapheneOS. And as long as there are FOSS operating systems, apps will be developed for them. If anything, this could drive mainstream adoption of free/libre Android forward, re-invigorating the scene through public outcry.
And to the people who propose fully jumping ship from Android to “Linux phones” because of Google’s recent changes, you would only make the app support matter worse. As someone who daily drives both a phone with LineageOS and one with postmarketOS (mainline-ish Linux), mobile app support is endlessly worse on Linux than the fallout from Google’s developer registration could ever be. That is not to say that Linux phones will not eventually get to a point of reasonable maturity, but it is way too early and frankly utterly irrational to bury AOSP Android or needlessly hate on it.
Hold up, why all this crap… when most of the malware/infostealers is on Google Playstore… and googe itself is doing it.
It’s called “eliminating competition”.
Ok, fuck this crap. This was the main reason to prefer Android over iOS. Going to start trying out some of the FOSS Android forks
Another example of Embrace, extend, and extinguish
Google has stopped releasing parts of android as open source and it releases some as a code dump without the modification history to make harder to use. Android forks are going to struggle to keep up.
I wonder if any and everyone who has ever contributed code under whichever open license was used could sue the tits off google, not as a class, but thousands upon thousands of individual lawsuits, for breach of terms of said licence/contract.
We really need some money poured into the Linux mobile space because this is a terrible direction to go.
Plain AOSP is already pretty brutal. An alternate OS is practically a non-starter. Phones aren’t just web browsers and SMS.
- Tap-to-pay
- Including transit fares
- Bank apps
- RCS messaging
- MFA and security apps
- Work profiles
- Streaming media that’s not 480p
Not to mention that the camera is going to suuuuuuuuck.
Forking or improving AOSP is more viable but none of the more mainstream ROMs want to piss off Google. That’s why most LineageOS forums forbid talking about defeating Play Integrity.
Also no GPU driver, because even if the manufacturer does actually provide it, some nerd within the community will block it for not being “free software” enough and that “for light 2D applications, CPU blitter is more than enough”.
- Tap-to-pay
dug my pinephone out of a drawer yesterday and gave it a whirl. still pretty rough unfortunately even after updating postmarket os.
Cool being able to SSH into my phone though
Cool being able to SSH into my phone though
I thought you could do that on Android?
Yeah, you absolutely can, and without needing root or anything.
I’m still hoping they can get to a state for more general users. I really want one still. I need a Linux phone doing the old sidekick designs.
The main issue will be application support.
Linux running on the desktop in 2025 is helped immensely by everything being web based. So long as you have a browser you are fine for a lot of general computing.
The phone space is ruled by apps. The phone makers and the companies developing apps prefer it this way.
Getting a banking app, or Uber or Facebook Messenger to work on a Linux phone is going to be a massive pain in the ass (ignoring the rest of the OS which is definitely not even close to useable for the general public).
I would love a Linux phone but we are so far away.
i’m just gonna switch to steam deck + gsm router
The phone space is ruled by apps. The phone makers and the companies developing apps prefer it this way.
That’s true, but for everything non-free, they always end up having a perfectly working web app that will accept my money.
I’m sure there will be some sort of compatibility layer available. Android Linux based after all.
There already is! I had a Furi Labs FLX1 for a while and it was able to run Android apps surprisingly via Andromeda (their fork of Waydroid).
tbh part of the rough experience for me may be down to the hardware. the ubports version of the pinephone i have is quite low power. 2GB memory and a little ARM Cortex-A53
tis sluggish
Get fucked
So now 3rd party app stores need an ADB loopback to work around that.
Not hard to do, but uselessly annoying.
Installing the third party stores would be way harder than it is right now if they do that though. No way the devs of e.g. f-droid are getting a verification on an app that bypasses Google’s new ‘safety measures’
I could imagine something like Sidequest happening on Android.
That’s only if the apps distributed are unverified. Mind, the EU already requires app stores to document the identities of devs, but there are loopholes for Small enterprises. In 2027, manufacturers need to document the identities of their suppliers. There are still exceptions for non-profit open source projects, but that’s not what Google is. Surely, no one here wants Google to avoid regulations by investing in open source.
I believe F-Droid signs the packages it distributes so that creates a painful choke point. Revoke F-Droid’s key and it will break all of F-Droid instantaneously. The only exception for F-Droid’s signing is if the build is reproducible, which is a high bar for a lot of projects, and then F-Droid will use the upstream signature.
Also, they’re trying to close the ADB loophole.
I expect phones in the EU are going to become a lot more locked down in the next 14 months, like Samsung is already showing. But also think that Google will try its best to make developing for Android easy to get into.
I think you can already do that with shizuku and dome fdroid clients. It also makes using 3rd party appstores more convenient just in general.
What did you expect? Did you think we were living in a fairy tale and could build a better world?
Free market and openness my ass.
ThIs ApPLicAtIoN iS DaNgErOuS
We need better Mobile Linux / Android distros
I hope google fails as a whole in the near future and gets dissolved once and for all. Sick and tired of tech companies trying to be sources of authority, working with authoritarian governments, and dictating what you can and can’t do.
I’ll be honest, tech got us by the balls… and they know it.
No they don’t. There are viable, open source alternatives for 99% of the software/services we use. The fact that people are not aware of it is already like half of the real problem.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’m saying it doesn’t seem like it will matter.
Say that to my banking and credit card apps (some of which don’t even have a web version for seCuRitY reasons)
I’d say ‘change banks’.
For a multitude of reasons, that is a silly suggestion.
The open source alternative to those is currently doing quite well.
Y’all can come in here with a suggestion, too. I’m just saying we are all ears.
What the heck is the open source equivalent of being able to manage the direct debits of one of my specific current credit cards?
What is it ?
I don’t imagine that paradigm going away at all anytime soon or ever
I have hope. Last time they got hit with an anti monopoly lawsuit that should’ve forced them to sell away chrome, but unfortunately they got bailed out. Here’s hoping next time they aren’t so lucky
