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[–] 124 points 1 year ago (30 children)

Its about time an open standard happened for mobile OSes.

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  • [–] 38 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    We need open bootloader and drivers for phones to make any real progress on this. This is what's holding back all initiatives.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I wonder if the generic tablets with made up Asian sounding names that you see on the big marketplaces could work? They could have slightly larger or smaller screens if they're cheaper than current phone screens, and could have Linux with something like Signal on them for calling.

    They'd probably be lower quality to begin with, but could potentially get better if people start to buy them. They seem to have generic hardware, so might be able to offer the drivers and unlockable bootloaders too :)

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  • [–] 94 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    That's what Android was and they keep trying to undo that any way they can

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  • [–] 49 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    We need a new one that isn't made by a for-profit company that only was good to get total market saturation before flipping the enshittification switch to maximize those profits.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    why do we need a new one? can't android be salvaged? lots of things have been solved already in a way that makes a relatively good foundation.

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    All the non-Google entities that build stuff on Android need to start banding together instead of siloing themselves. If AOSP is being closed, they need to create a non-profit replacement for it.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    The fucked up part is nowadays third parties like banks or sometimes even governments make apps rely on Google services, so you can't use an ungoogled phone for stuff you actually need for life...

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago*

    I guess if Google closes down AOSP it would get forked, and the fork would probably be a separate thing from the current Android distributions. So that the landscape would continue to look a bit like today, except that AOSP would be an independent thing.

    Then I guess it's possible that Google would seek to make android apps incompatible, gradually making the whole thing kinda pointless. I can't say I'm using Android for the great UX - I'm using it because it supports a few apps I continue to be forced to use. If I can't use them on Android any more I'm switching to Ubuntu Touch or PostmarketOS in a heartbeat.

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  • Makes me curious if they think their monopoly or whatever they were called cases making them split their browser are going to go though. If you are going to have to sell parts of the company, now would be the time to hammer home any last minute bad things that would make the companies more profitable. Shows higher income for the sale, and gets it out of the way so the new purchaser doesn't look like the ones who did it, but rather the ones who will make announcements on how they will review things to make them better for the user base.

    Doesn't mean they'll follow through on them, but it takes the evil and sticks it with the old owners.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    the best outcome for the short term would be to forcibly take away android from google and give it to an independent foundation. as I heard antitrust proceedings in the usa were heading that way a few months ago

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago* (9 children)

    FuriOS? Linux-based and runs Android apps.

    https://furilabs.com/

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Not bad, it looks like I have to buy their phone though. Which is not cheap, or performant guessing by the specs despite what the advertising says.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago*

    Interesting. I've not heard of FuriOS, but if it is a Linux phone that actually can be used with US carriers, makes calls and supports SMS/MMS, and can do VoLTE that's a actually a pretty big deal.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Whenever you see a linux phone advertise both security and android app support, you should be wary, since it's likely waydroid or a waydroid fork, and their design goal of running android in a container instead of a VM has lead to some interesting security decisions.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I would be very happy if anyone could explain to me in a simple and coherent way why I, as a normal user who am aware of what I am doing on my device and am not targeted by any group that's out to get me, would need a "hardened malloc", "secure app spawning", "vanadium browser and webview", or a "hardened PDF viewer". The last of these four is the only thing that means anything to me, and it sounds dumb. Yeah, I know PDFs can be dangerous if you open random shit, but come on.

    If I run Waydroid it's only to get my banking app (trusted source) and Whatsapp (not a trusted source but not directly malware either) working. I hardly need their hardened PDF reader.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago*

    Not just your two android apps, any program on your system that is aware of your waydroid installation could potentially use it as a path to escalate themselves to root, which is generally regarded as a bad outcome. If you don't care about that kind of thing, or don't think that could ever happen to you, that's certainly within your rights to hold such a viewpoint.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Still using Android 11? Holy hell.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    You realize how many things have gotten shittier since android 11? Accubattery isn't even allowed to monitor everything using up juice any more. You can't customize your own charging curves, you're locked out of accessing portions of your storage on your own phone, and a lot of great power user apks had to completely hit themselves or just stop working all together.

    What do you need from after 11 that an apk wouldn't have allowed you to do already?

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  • [–] 69 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  • [–] 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Easily the most disgusting company in the planet and it’s funny that their old motto/slogan was ”Don’t be evil”.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    I've recently gotten to think that the company which made the basement for all these disgusting companies is usually viewed as not just not disgusting, but almost holy. Meaning Sun. So, maybe, judging the tree by its fruits, the most disgusting company was Sun.

    I mean, I know that everyone who used their products and of course people who worked there are still in awe and remember it like a Soviet summer camp shown in the Everlasting Summer game.

    But perhaps that's misguided. They've built the hierarchical systems, the infrastructure, for all the dystopia of today, and their code still powers much of it.

    Also you know how the second competitor in an almost monopolized market is sometimes considered an accomplice of monopoly? Because they are strong enough to support some of its ways, while the rest are not. So they reinforce it. I'm also looking at Firefox writing this. Literally.

    Perhaps we'd have a better environment office-wise if LibreOffice and OpenOffice were not a thing. They support MS formats, thus indirectly contributing to MS dominance. The network effects work in a few different ways, while were it different, those desperately needing MS documents would use MSO, at the same time those just needing some office suite would possibly not.

    Perhaps that can also be applied to Unix and Unix-likes, Sun made a lot of momentum for Unix and Unix-like desktops when they contributed to TCL/Tk so that it became a tool for making Unix and Unix-like desktop applications easily. And when they created Java and Java applets in web browsers prepared the public for scripts in browsers and cross-platform applications served over net.

    Yes, it all felt like heaven behind the corner, but perhaps they are to blame. What if.

    After all, much of that was free or for the cost of a CD then, and free cheese usually is part of a trap. Perhaps if instead commercial competing platforms, like Amiga or even Apple, were to gain more following, we'd have a different world. All those development resources couldn't have been gifted (Sun in the 90s, I mean, and honestly many universities) out of nowhere, something made that worth the expense.

    Or, if we want free and open, Lisp environments are somewhat easier to hack on (also again about TCL, it kinda approaches that in convenience for a non-programmer to make something simple, quick and dirty, but good enough), and accessibility to wider, eh, masses is meaningful here. So maybe GNU shouldn't have gone with a Unix-like system idea. I mean, OK, they do have a Lisp environment fit for everything, it's called Emacs.

    BTW, about disgusting companies coming to mind first, I'm not disgusted by Oracle, in comparison to most other big ones they do honest business. I dunno why they are hated, uncle Larry says dystopian shit with enthusiasm and no remorse, but at the same time his company sells exactly what it advertises. It's all kinda open and straightforward, it's the "one rich asshole called Larry Ellison" company, which may not be what someone likes, but is certainly better than companies actively building worldwide digital fascism (it, of course, offers expertise and help to those who do in case they need it). Also he's really a self-made man. Unlike all those other types from good families, good environments and with good education.

    OK. I just have that conspiracy theory brewing in my mind about Sun actually being evil. Sorry.

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  • [+] 68 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Look up Microsoft in the early 90s and how we all got through it.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    tbf, we all got through it by just going to other platforms. now there’s almost no other platforms to go to because big tech either pressures them until they fold, or sell to them and become part of their umbrella as some shill company or they remain independent but still use big tech software to run their backend, so your info ends up going to them anyway. i think in the future, everyone will be forced into surveillance by default and those who don’t will have to either pay dearly for privacy or learn how to program their own security. checkout project gideon that’s already getting pitched to the united states government and other governments from israel. it’s literally that show “person of interest” plus

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