to my understanding, a custom ROM such as iodéOS shouldn’t be (directly) affected by Google’s decree as they won’t include / patch out the sideloading requirements from AOSP, correct?
Here’s the problem:
In consequence, the F-Droid project is appealing to regulators and competition authorities to scrutinize Google’s proposals, and for developers and users to put pressure on politicians.
We can’t wait for them to allow us to have freedom neither ask for permission, we can just keep using and building freedom tech regardless of their permissions. Otherwise they will just keep pushing us into gulags.
This cannot be stressed enough: This freedom is an inalienable human right that cannot be “granted” by a government (nor taken away).
Correct, govts are not here to help but to enslave.
You can do some actions:
https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/1nc0p8o/collection_of_actions_that_can_be_done_regarding/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1
There are other things we can do too. Recently I replicated the contents of my Native Alpha apps page (F-Droid/izzyondroid), on to my Droidian phone so as to get a similar level of the functionality I’m getting from my degoogled XA2, only to find that around 20%+ of the web apps I have already saved have now been replaced by PWA’s. A little research followed to find out that PWA’s (cross platform apps), are taking over from ios/google apps because… a) they can be downloaded directly from the owner’s site and b) they are cheaper for the site owner to build and maintain than platform dedicated apps.
Now I know that this won’t provide an answer to all our problems but as far as your average user goes it will go a fair way to solving an awful lot. If I take my partners phone as a distinctly ‘non techie’ user example, I could most likely replace 90%+ of her Gapps on Native Alpha. Most all of her stuff is centred around shopping, free games and special interest sites (mostly horsey) etc, etc. PWA’s for Telegram, Instagram, X, Tinder and other social media/MSM sites are already available.
PWA’s are the future I’m thinking with maybe the odd exceptions but it would be nice to see iode adding a more security focused version of Native Alpha to their pre-installed apps list that closes down some of the malware/spyware risks associated with downloading them along with giving you the PWA option when there is one.
One would hope so, but given PWAs have been around for almost 10 years its still a pretty slow up take - but hopefully the snowball is far enough down the mountain now interns of knowledge and awareness for them to become the norm.
I wish there was better visibility of what sites support them when you go to a site - i.e. more obvious browser flag or something?
The pessimist on me still thinks G and co will find a way to get their hooks into them, once they get significant weight of numbers in usage…
This is what I’m getting at really. It is difficult to identify the sites that offer them and there is almost no recognition of their existence within the FOSS community support structure. The thing is that many site owners are becoming aware of the fact that putting your own platform dedicated app on to the Gapp store can be a bad thing as the search engine prioritises the ‘sponsored’ apps so you run the risk of losing a potential customer to one of your competitor’s apps that just happens to be higher up the search list.
Educating both site owners and users by promoting PWA’s has to be the way forward in the longer term if screwgle continue this monopolistic policy of access denial to custom ROM users. PWA’s have improved a lot since I ditched the big G (2019), but so have web apps generally. Even the sites that don’t offer PWA’s seem to work satisfactorily in Native Alpha, the only downside being that you need to have a web connection. Some kind of browser flagging to detect PWA’s and easy access security such as using fingerprint would be very useful features to add.
Here’s a link to an Adobe review of PWA’s for anyone that wants to know more.
https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/progressive-web-app-examples
More reporting: Google confirms Android dev verification will have free and paid tiers, no public list of devs - Ars Technica
Some are saying this will make f-droid die as a project, but it will stop people from using f-droid on android stock devices, right? Custom roms like lineage iodé and graphene will still be able to use f-droid from my understanding
Thankfully, some very vocal opposition: 'Keep Android Open' movement fights Google dev requirement • The Register
In-depth reporting: With developer verification, Google's Apple envy threatens to dismantle Android's open legacy - Ars Technica
we need to unite forces of iodé, lineage and graphene and fork android. Graphene partened with motorola so we will have many more devices ready for custom roms.
It’s just a matter of time before the big G pulls the plug altogether and Gapps just won’t run without cloud certification. The problem is that the vast majority of FOSS OS users are just too dependent upon google for their app’s. All google are forcing them to do is to make the choice. ‘You’re either with us or against us’ has become part of their culture. For those FOSS OS users that don’t use Gapps there isn’t a problem to discuss in the first place. It’s just business as usual and b0110x to screwgle (and apple), whatever they decide to do.
All the FOSS community has to do is get used to it and focus our attention on developing better webapp management services in the shorter term. When I look at my partner’s Samsung google android there’s only one app from 68 that couldn’t be replaced by a webapp or sometimes even a dedicated FOSS app and that is Gpay. Yet…. when she looks at my phone all she says is wtf, just because she doesn’t recognise a single icon as being something she is familiar with. The first person to compile a privacy focused FOSS OS distro’ that is recognisable to regular users not just techie’s will clean up.
It has to tell us something. It certainly tells me something anyway.