As a Raymond Carver fan: what the fuck is this headline???

If android blocks direct-installing "sideloading", I will move to Apple and never look the fuck back. This is pure greed and hubris that Google thinks they have the market cornered. They all can go cuck themselves.

Whole thing is well worth a read, but just from the title alone I was ready to write a long rant about the term 'sideloading'. Gladly that's covered on the text too:

It bears reminding that “sideload” is a made-up term. Putting software on your computer is simply called “installing”, regardless of whether that computer is in your pocket or on your desk.

Does this mean sideloading is going away on Android? Absolutely not. Sideloading is fundamental to Android and it is not going away.

This statement is untrue. The developer verification decree effectively ends the ability for individuals to choose what software they run on the devices they own.

...

Wikipedia’s summary definition is:

the transfer of apps from web sources that are not vendor-approved

By this definition, Google’s statement that “sideloading is not going away” is simply false. The vendor — Google, in the case of Android certified devices — will, in point of fact, be approving the source. The supplicant app developer must register with Google, pay a fee, provide government identification, agree to non-negotiable (and ever-changing) terms and conditions, enumerate all their current and future application identifiers, upload evidence of their private signing key, and then hope and wait for Google’s approval.

I'm glad to see this bullshit called out.

Why can't we ever have nice things for more than about 10–15 years. 😭

I call it "installing software".

Sideloading means not being forced to use the monopoly provider.

I echo the criticism of the term 'sideloading', before it started to mean just installing software, I assumed it meant using a separate device or software on the side, like a PC with a debug interface or memory inspection tools, to inject custom code into a running system or software.

Similarly to preloading libraries into games or other software to replace functions in order to change or enhance the game or software. For instance used with script extenders or game mods. There it is 'pre' because the software is not running yet. 'Side' would be on running software.

But installing applications (the distribution doesn't matter) is in no way side loading.

And I really hate that the press or whoever picked this term up from apple or google and ran with it without question.

And now, because that term is so strange and useless in that way, its definition keeps getting changed into whatever the industry needs in order to squeeze out more money and personal data, while taking away the freedom and rights of the owners.

I'm not sure why Google just doesn't track who opts out of Play Store protections to side load and then refuse to support anything further. Power users will be happy, they're power users. Grannies have been warned. Where's the problem?

Block by default, opt out of blocking explicitly. Give users that choice. If I want to riddle my phone with viruses and bitcoin miners that's my problem.

I shall make a donation once again

Seems like a good place to plug the scientific research finding that Google Playstore security is lousy compared to f-droid:

https://nsl.cs.waseda.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/submitted_wama2017.pdf

Wait... It's not about turning the phone sideways while something is loading so gravity helps pull the progress bar down?

Once Google does away with it, either someone will come up with a viable alternative, or I'll just buy a damn iPhone so my wife stops yapping about blue text bubbles

This is good writing.

In promoting their developer registration program, Google purports:

Our recent analysis found over 50 times more malware from internet-sideloaded sources than on apps available through Google Play.

We haven’t seen this recent analysis — or any other supporting evidence — but the “50 times” multiple does certainly sound like great cause for distress (even if it is a surprisingly round number). But given the recent news of “224 malicious apps removed from the Google Play Store after ad fraud campaign discovered”, we are left to wonder whether their energies might better be spent assessing and improving their own safeguards rather than casting vague disparagements against the software development communities that thrive outside their walled garden.

This is good writing. Register-level, even.

In promoting their developer registration program, Google purports:

Our recent analysis found over 50 times more malware from internet-sideloaded sources than on apps available through Google Play.

We haven’t seen this recent analysis — or any other supporting evidence — but the “50 times” multiple does certainly sound like great cause for distress (even if it is a surprisingly round number). But given the recent news of “224 malicious apps removed from the Google Play Store after ad fraud campaign discovered”, we are left to wonder whether their energies might better be spent assessing and improving their own safeguards rather than casting vague disparagements against the software development communities that thrive outside their walled garden.