They have the ecosystem by the balls. Phone manufacturers in recent years have been making unlocking & modifying their devices more and more difficult, google and app developers have been cracking down harder on modded devices by implementing TPM equivalents in the hardware to sign and verify that your system is a google-appproved one, and alternatives still are decades behind in terms of app ecosystem.
I would say this is a bold choice for a company whose existing restrictions around third party apps and stores and in-app purchases has already been found illegal. While it doesn't look like they're pushing for it right now, forcing Google to sell Android was something the DOJ has considered as a penalty.
I'm not sure Google still has the ecosystem by the balls. It's very possible whatever Googlers who made this decision are the type of folks who don't comprehend they work for a monopoly that like actually can't do things like this anymore.
> and alternatives still are decades behind in terms of app ecosystem.
That's if they're available at all. In my country, only cell phones certified by the telecommunications government agency (ANATEL) can be imported, so the alternatives (Jolla, PinePhone, Fairphone) simply don't exist.
It's incredibly obnoxious when people type "in my country" as if we're all supposed to just... know where they live. It's also incredibly common. Why do people do this?
The actual country is not relevant, the important part is that countries exist where this is the case. Mentioning the specific country invites potential bias that means people may not take the concern seriously, thinking their country wouldn't do the same.
Asking where somebody's from and having them respond with the state is not unreasonable -- you can already tell they’re American from the accent. The US is huge, about half of its states have more land area than half of the countries in the world. Asking where someone is from and receiving "the US" in response is about as informative as someone from Europe replying "Europe". Like yeah, obviously, I could tell by your accent, but where in Europe?
Funny thing is that americans do that all the time, even in international settings like a coworking space full of expats. Everybody introducing themselves with a "hi, I'm from this country", except americans telling their state or city. Are they expecting us to be familiar with their geography, or just unaware of alternative geographical frames of reference?
I don't think that is strange at all. If you can reasonable assume the person you are talking to is aware of e.g. England, Minnesota, Scotland, Tasmania, Sicily or what not you can go straight for that?
I'd think passive recognition of a fair few states would be a pretty low bar for relatively educated, English-speaking people. It's a pretty low bar, just placing a region with its country. People also regularly just assume that level of knowledge for globally- or culturally-relevant cities.
Maybe I think too highly of people, but I'd also imagine most would be able to get say... 6/10 right, for which countries the following list is from:
Yeah, I'll just ditch Google over this. The only reason I put up with their crap is because I can actually just install software on my phone. If they take that away, there's no motivation to stay.
If I can't run F-Droid and termux and all that, I have no need for Android supposed freedom. I'll just use an iPhone (it would be the first time!), minimize my use of mobile platforms to the maximum extent I can and stick with Linux laptops.
I'm currently researching Android alternatives, including Librem and Jolla C2, and I'm skeptical that those will be compelling. It's just so sad.
I’ve been daily driving a Librem 5 for two years. It’s not compelling, but I’m surprised at how little all those tiny inconveniences matter in the long run.
I think we tend to underestimate our ability to get used to stuff.
If both phone OS's are going to be the exact same on user choice then you might as well compare the two on their merits and this is not a comparison Android wins.
I rely on fdroid and am not sure what I'll do with this pixel 6a. I sometimes root, sometimes don't but I may have to get on the lineageos program full time. And I'm hoping for a rumored last batch of pinephone pro phones to be available later this month although I have no illusions about it being a real daily driver.
I have issues getting sms pass through to a secondary profile, especially if it is a group message or contains media. I have to remember to open the messaging app for it to actually refresh and download/notify me of new messages.
It didn't used to be like this but started maybe a year ago.
No root is a major security feature, you have chosen an OS that prioritizes security.
Use some other browser if dark mode is really important to you.
I think the launcher is good and I can't think of anything to improve on it. I'm happy it's the default, but I'm sure you can switch to a different launcher if you want.
Pattern unlock is also not there because of security.
fdroid is based in the EU and the Cyber Resilience Act was already going to force them to either make their filters more strict (absolutely prohibit anything with any sort of "monetization"), or start collecting this data.
If they have anything on the platform that is subject to the CRA, they are a distributer:
Use an iPhone, minimize my use of it. Continue to emphasize Linux on all my other devices. Move away from Google and Apple services to as much self-hosting as possible. Leverage TailScale to make my services accessible, globally, without actually exposing them on the internet. I'm just assuming that I will have to have some kind of attested device in order to run banking and payment apps and that might as well be a locked down device like an iPhone.
An unofficial build of Android, like Grapheneos. It likely won't be able to install apps from the Play Store, but at that point it might be a blessing.
They're also the best equipped to tell if you've done so, and restrict access from critical functionality needed by many in their day-to-day lives if you've done so.
The intentions behind all the security hardware they introduced in pixel phones first, and is now required by play integrity to function might've been well-meaning, but that doesn't really matter in the end. Security features that the user can't control and bypass aren't security features - they're digital handcuffs.
true, and recently they deserved a lot of credit for publicly releasing their device trees and drivers. unfortunately, with the 10 series pixels they no longer will be releasing device trees, which makes it much more difficult to maintain custom ROMs
I think they might just get away with it.