Android

Google can go fuck itself

So they're addressing students and private hobbyists, but not open source and hobbyists willing to publish.

Sounds like it will be a kind of sideloading onto your own devices.

that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn't verified

So for F-Droid, a vetting and curating publisher, users will have to go through this expert process. The announcement that activation under pressure will be prevented makes me thing of a time cooldown, like activate now, and it becomes active by tomorrow, 24 hours later.

Scamming is a real problem, and to a degree, it may end up being a good thing. As long as Google does not take this opportunity to push hidden agenda of increasing accessibility and choice, to seize more control not for security but as market and platform strategy.

F-Droid says they don't want to impersonate other projects in order to be able to publish their projects, arguably decreasing security, which is a valid concern. As long as there's a setting to allow this kind of sideloading and the use of F-Droid like before, I guess it is what it is, and may be acceptable.

If only they had started from where they are now. It's plainly obvious there's these kinds of users and use-cases. Did they really need "the community feedback" to learn about everything outside of their primary "linear" users?

We are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn't verified.

Isn't this what we wanted?