This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
The infuriating part of the Google enshittification process is that there is absolutely nothing the user can do about it.
Literally the only thing that motivates Google is profit. Controlling side-loaded apps will almost certainly boost their profits by a infinitesimal fraction of a percent, therefore it will be done. Even if consumer uproar causes Google to back down in the short term, they'll simply implement this a few months later. Late-stage Capitalism sucks.
You can stop using all Google products. Now I understand their market share on the web means they’re going to continue to shape the web.
But make no mistake. There is something, however small, that you can do. De-Google.
I will help hand hold anyone who wants to build servers or services (to the best of my ability) to replace Google services with their own.
You can stop using all Google products.
My public school -- that my children are basically required by law to attend, remember -- is badgering me to sign a consent form so they can have Chromebooks.
This fight is a lot fucking larger than mere individual boycotts!
And my kids school requires every parent to have a Google account to track progress and share information.
De-Google
The complaint is side loading is being restricted and the only long term alternative Apple. Google already began the process of shutting down Graphene by cutting drivers out of AOSP.
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-not-killing-aosp-3566882/
Hang on, as somebody who knows enough to be looking into switching to graphene, but not entirely enough to know what AOSP is, what exactly is happening?
Am I going to fuck myself over? If I do end up switching to a custom rom? Should I just wait on the Linux community to build something better?
All I want is a working device that isn't selling all my shit to Mark Zuckerberg
G is restricting the factory images/source (I believe) that graphene uses to build their system, so they are having to work backwards, take more time, etc. It's a shitty thing to do but afaik it's not a blocker. I'm typing this on a gos pixel 8 pro right now.
Linux phones are still in their infancy, and are pretty shit if you need anything more than the ability to call and text (sms) on specific carriers (limitations applies to the USA, AUS, and a couple more I believe). I have a pinephone 1st gen and it's... Cool for messing with, absolutely, but jesus christ it's painful to actually attempt to use. I bought that 3y ago and not much has changed, from videos I've seen (my pinephone screen is lifting and failing so...). From a developer - like, bringing Linux to the phone platform - sure, grab one. As a user, unless you understand that you very likely will not daily this device (or any similar device) because shit just doesn't work/isn't ready and are OK with that... No, don't. A few more years, maybe.
GrapheneOS is still moving ahead albeit slower, as you said. They are also working on a deal with a phone manufacturer to bring a more secure phone to market. I dunno whether it will just meet the same security levels of the Pixels and ship with stock Android, or if it will be a full GrapheneOS Phone. I'm hoping for the latter, but it will more likely be the former. Fingers crossed.
You can stop using all Google products.
That may be true for you, but other people face different realities. When Google implements the sideloading block it will eventually be pushed to everyone who doesn't use a custom ROM.
Its about time an open standard happened for mobile OSes.
That's what Android was and they keep trying to undo that any way they can
We need a new one that isn't made by a for-profit company that only was good at the beginning to get total market saturation before flipping the enshittification switch to maximize those profits.
We need open bootloader and drivers for phones to make any real progress on this. This is what's holding back all initiatives.
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
I don't know about anyone else, but I got into computers at a young age because it gave me a sense of control over something. I didn't understand everything, but I could do a lot of trial and error, read things and experiment, build cool things, and I shared a sense of community with some random internet strangers based on that knowledge.
In a world where we are so powerless in so many other ways, why did we insist on bringing that power dynamic into the new bright tech sphere? Why did we have to do that? (N.B. this is rhetorical questioning).
In the new Alien Earth TV show, 5 corporations basically run everything.. unfortunately I suspect thats where we are headed as a species.
There are at least two generations of us who are disappointed at the contrast between tech's possibilities as envisioned decades ago and the corporate surveillance crap we have to put up with today.
We, as in the average every day people, didn't do shit. The corporations that make the shit we use are the ones who got us here. The only thing the people using the devices and software are guilty of is not making a fuss about losing control over the stuff becsuse the average person does not care that deeply about the tools and likely doesn't even know about a good 75% of what was lost.
When reading cyberpunk lore, quickhacks didn't make any sense to me. Some programs that break cyberware because of backdoors, but why would people install cyberware with backdoors?
Now I look at the sad state of mobile market and, yeah ok, that makes sense.
Fuck google
Easily the most disgusting company in the planet and it’s funny that their old motto/slogan was ”Don’t be evil”.
Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to live in this damn Orwellian society that is coming?
The year of the Linux mobile is coming.
IS THAT A FUCKING HEADPHONE JACK!?
Let's go 🔥🔥🔥
The EU's been breathing down Apple's neck for them trying to do similar shit, so i find the timing kinda weird.
Plus they'd need to force-update their spyware first, i wonder how many versions of android they're willing to go back.
I think the update is already installed, just waiting for the kill switch.
I feel like this is the new normal cycle of every software company. Once they become a leader, it's never enough. It replicates the rise of billionaires. Just as the billionaires being rich beyond anything they and all of their succeeding generations could ever spend is not enough, being the industry leader and producing an amazing product that people want is somehow not enough. It always turns to control and power.
they just want to confirm a malicious actor didn’t develop it
So Newpipe, SmartTube, Nintendo emulators...
Clones of opensource apps bundled with ads that violates license is OK, but restricting everyone to build and test apps from source so it can test new features and report any issues is too risky for the user
now it's just a race for the giant conglomerates to make the worst decisions for consumers
I came here specifically to ask about alternatives to Android now that google is becoming too abusive in the relationship.
I’m bothered that big companies, especially tech right now, no longer see their customers as people they need to please to stay in business, but instead as something they’ll inconvenience and squeeze as much as they can possibly get away with.
They all got to where they are making, at one point, amazing products. Now? Fuck making windows useful, we can throw ads and AI at you every place we can think of. Fuck all of the parts of Android that made it stand out, we tell you what to install. You don’t want all of your data scraped and sold? Fuck you, there’s 3 of us and we’re all doing it. In fact we’ll never stop finding new ways to harvest data.
Phones have basically stagnated entirely in the US. Sure you get moderately better chipsets, but what else? AI? I haven’t had a phone struggle with anything in… maybe 10 years. Instead features that people didn’t use enough just get removed.
And they can suckle upon my peener.
I'll go to Graphine or something else before I let the company for whom "don't be evil" was too bold a statement dictate my fuckin' choices.
I already ditched Windows. Can't be that hard to cut Google out too.
Graphene has locked itself to google hardware, and google can cripple them at any point by stopping bootloader unlocks. We need to go deeper, or aim higher as it were
google is pissed people were deleting that spying app on android phones, plus thier constant attack on adblocking on youtube wasnt working to well. since samsung and iphones pretty much walled in thier os, why not google.
Fuck them. I have a guitar a pocket watch and a wind uo radio. Everything have is a nicety.
