Ordered a Jolla phone with their SailfishOs (linux based). Time to leave android
Isn’t SailfishOS proprietary?
I only hope that manufacturers respond to this kind of behavior. Motorola deserves full credit for adopting grapheneos. I think some of the Chinese manufacturers have their own forks too?
How? The TOS for selling phones with Google services is that they can’t sell phones with an Android fork outside China. Even the ODM is affected, meaning nobody will ever think this.
I saw in Italy that selling phones without Google services is a death sentence, Huawei crashed from 25% marketshare to 0% basically overnight even if they already had a “plan B” where they made “new” phones using the same specs and codename but in a different shape to buy time and when they launched their fork they had a 1:1 replacement for GMS called HMS so devs could still embed Google Maps and it will be replaced automatically by petal maps. Devs could upload their apps with a single click and users could install Google services unofficially installing an “unofficial 😉” APK with all the right signatures. Nobody did that. One click = too much work = nobody touches the default
At least they can leave the bootloader unlockable for us, but fucking Xiaomi really needs to make 200 new fucking models a year with lots of proprietary bits and abandons them after 6 months so it’s impossibile for the community to make a well supported custom ROM. They copy everything from apple except the part where they should only make 4 fucking models a year. Basic, standard, pro and pro max. Don’t need a “Xiaomi Redmi note 29T pro 5G wideband edition”
Ironically, this may be a catalyst for better Linux Phones
Just in time for them to be practically outlawed, if my gut can be trusted. I hope not.
It took 6-10 years for Android to take shape.
On Linux, every app has full access to your browsing history, clipboard (passwords), photos with geo-tags, music, list of other installed apps, contacts. Unrestricted battery and network access – it’s a tracking paradise. And all it takes is one supply chain attack on npm install with typical 4000K dependency packages
Thats why flatpaks exist for those kind of apps and sandboxes are very much possible on linux (even if not widely used for normal programs)
Flatpack is only a piece of the puzzle. I remember in early Android version, an app could increas gyroscope query frequency (i.e. a racing game demanding precise phone tilt), then crash and the gyroscope would drain battery within hours. And again — this is only one example.
The ecosystem must grow — to this day, I cannot set Immich as my default gallery app on LineageOS. So I take a photo, and can’t immediatelly look at it. And Android is already mature. There must be a standard and secure way of exchanging calendar events, notes, photos. Developers must adopt this new ecosystem — it takes years.
The best option we have right now is to pressure Google to allow alternative to Play Services and also sponsor AOSP development outside of Google. There are numerous Linux distros, including commercial ones, I don’t see why we can’t have numerous Android flavors.
Honestly I would much rather long term have decent Linux for phones, as AOSP derived programs will always rely in some way on google code. I would prefer having one large FOSS Linux ecosystem
From the pure technical standpoint, AOSP is better in every way. Fully managed runtime gives better control over resources scheduling, better app sandboxing. Battery life. Uniform hardware support.
All obstacles for it to be open were artificially made by lawyers.
Like Jolla runs Android emulation layer. Same Android but without its benefits.
Thank god I run /e/OS. I just hope this won’t hurt the popularity of sideloaded apps too much, as this might mean FOSS apps becoming stagnant because they don’t receive as much attention anymore
I also use /e/OS. I’m not too versed in these things, but if I understand correctly from your comment, this decision by Google won’t directly affect us right? Only in the sense that it discourages developers to not support FOSS apps?
Yeah, it won’t affect you really. /e/OS is based off of AOSP and Lineage and the devs can just choose to keep it like it currently is. I haven’t really found a source for it but since theres like no official play store, and the lineage community would just patch out whatever google introduces (If this even reaches AOSP) I don’t think this will ever bother neither of us. The real threat comes from FOSS projects dying bc most Android users still use proprietary android
