I have a Feb 5th update for the s25 that's info suggests it might be making this change too.

Suddenly, I don't really feel like updating.

I was already concerned any future updates would add more AI BS I don't need. So I probably wasn't going to update it anymore anyway.

This is why am not updating my phone

Gotta love that ad for the Galaxy S26 at the end of the article.

Python 2 to 3 was genuinely painful for anyone maintaining large codebases in 2019. The string encoding differences alone broke entire pipelines, and the fact that so much enterprise software hung on for years past EOL proves the migration cost was real, not imagined. Communities that laugh at 'still on Python 2' ignore that rewriting mature codebases is not a weekend project.

They want to lock us out of owning the devices we fucking paid for.

The sad thing is the average consumer neither understands nor cares.

This era is such a pointless attack against the smallest niche of users. I honestly don't get it. How much are a few techie hobbyists costing Google/Samsung's gargantuan bottom lines? They are stepping over dollars to chase after pennies.

Just let people who want to modify their phones. It's already prohibitively hard that no one who doesn't have the know-how is installing their own apps outside the stores.

Welp, next phone is gonna be a challenge to pick.

I feel these companies are forgetting the lessons from the mid 2000’s. When you remove the hardware features from your devices, which only the most advanced users use. It doesn’t mean you’ve locked it down, but instead invited these users to find alternative ways to bypass your security.

PS3 had Linux support. PS3 removed Linux supper. PS3 was cracked wide open.

Xbox One has a Dev mode, devs who wanted to play emulators on their Xboxes could. So the hardware was left be.

I should have gotten the pixel 9 instead of the s24 ultra. At this point it might just be more economical for me to sell mine at a loss and scrounge up for a pixel 9 and install graphene OS

Man I fucking hate this. I like the s24u because of the stylus. Sure I might use it 3 to 4 times a month, I'm always grateful that the pen is bluetooth and can act as a camera remote control, fingerlessly control my phone and just the precision a stylus has.

Man fuck my life this is such bullshit

How can I block any further updates from samsung? 😬

After Google decided to ban sideloading (their alleged "change of heart" is increasingly looking like a PR exercise), I decided to not buy any more devices devices based on American platforms.

My A73 works fine, but I planning to get a Jolla phone later his year. Going to use both in parallel to aid in switching.

I do wish European banks and eGov services started porting their apps to SailfishOS.

This is gonna push a number of technical people to iOS. Not phone enthusiasts necessarily. At my workplace you need to be running non-rooted Android or iOS to be able to use work stuff from your phone. From that lens, if I can't install non-signed software or mess with the personal side of the OS... I might as well have an iPhone.

If I download the latest software update on my s23 ultra, I will no longer be able to sideload?

Bloody hell, the faster plain Linux phones become viable, the better.

If Google does what they plan to do this year, my next phone's not going to be Android or iOS, somehow.

Time for lawsuits. Companies need to learn they can't change the terms after the sale.

WTF. In the past I updated my tablet and after that it started to discharge within two days (not a week as it used to). The only way to fix it was to clear cache partition. And now they are removing that option.

There's real Linux mobile phone OS like https://sailfishos.org/ which I will try as soon as my phone gets delivered.
I'm fed up with Android/Google as it is and GrapheneOS (which I'm running now) can't stop me from wanting to have alternatives.

At least with old vehicles you could install the same gasoline regardless of which "gasoline company" you shopped at. Everything is tightened up nowadays, and is getting worse, but you can only do that for so long before the bindings break and an explosion occurs.

Ah, OS sideloading,

We'll find a way around it, as we always have.

Well, without sideloading android is wildly inferior to iOS. Hopefully this pushes people to Linux phones, and then we can get some decent phones.

This is a crime and you are the victim.