this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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F-Droid

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F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.

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Our smartphones, operating systems and apps are dominated by Google & Apple. "[...] these two Silicon Valley profit-driven companies decide which apps are or aren't allowed, and moderate what our (waag.social)
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Our smartphones, operating systems and apps are dominated by Google & Apple. "[...] these two Silicon Valley profit-driven companies decide which apps are or aren't allowed, and moderate what our mobile software looks like." says @danlammerhirt from @waag working on the Mobifree project (together with a.o. @efoundation @fdroid @NGIZero @murena @microg @delta

https://waag.org/en/article/why-smartphones-are-key-better-internet/

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 8 months ago (2 children)

None of this is true for android. You can and always have been able to sideload whatever apps you want so long as it's compiled to work with your version of android.

Apple has always been the walled garden and they are nowhere near in the same league.

If you want to be taken seriously, don't mention apple and android in the same sentence like this. Apple makes phones, android is an operating system and a Foss one at that. Wording like the above shows a major lack of understanding when it comes to tech.

Do better.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The problem is that android is tried heavily to proprietary google software

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

You can still install a ROM ungoogled. It's like https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/issues/3872, Google trying to shut down Invidious, but they can't. Don't let big tech fool you, there is freedom, you just need to be educated to those tools.

[–] Eeyore_Syndrome 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

me installing whatever .apk's I want liberally.

Not sure what the issue is -.-

I also enjoy browsing with Firefox+UBlock and a custom DNS.

Can apple users use/edit a custom DNS on their device directly even??

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

They are stuck using only WebKit and glorified wrappers and its limitations. On that Android is better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Apparently, but whenever I've tried it hasn't seemed to worked.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

@waag @danlammerhirt @efoundation @fdroid @murena @microg @delta We are NLnet Labs; we develop #OpenSource software for Core Internet Infrastructure. We presume you meant to mention the NLnet Foundation - @NGIZero (don't worry, it happens a lot).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Ive been keeping my eye on purely linux devices recently

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Android is open source and this post is full of shit. Apple is a company that makes phones and the os that runs on them. Android is used by Google for the pixel line and the nexus line before it but anyone can fork android and make it their own, make it run on any device that supports it, etc.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It's not that easy, Google heavily dictates the development goals of Android. It's basically developed behind closed doors, and then the source is dumped to the public after each release. Still better than iOS, but nothing like regular Linux distros

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

And yet it's been sliced and diced, features added and removed, distributions created for many devices since its inception by countless developers of varying skill level. It's a lot more like regular Linux distros than not.

You don't get to choose the direction Debian takes on what init or sound daemon they ship. The Debian organization does. You might be able to observe their deliberations, but your input is unlikely to be a part of it. In the end the result ends up in the repos. You can take that and change it, just like people have done with Android for many years.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Nowhere near as much as you think. And yet another person who has no idea how any of this actually works and has been working for like 20 years now.

Why, oh why do I try to educate you lot on shit like this? I might as well just stick my hand in a woodchipper.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Do you have evidence to backup your statement?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

AOSP is dying as Google has replaced all the core apps with proprietary versions. On top of that the Android SDK has proprietary software included and a EULA

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

@rdyoung @breadsmasher "Android is open source"
Well... AOSP is open source.
Google Android is not open source. And the Play Services, Play Store etc. are key services.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yes and no.

It's clear that no one here actually understands how this stuff works so I'm done. But I will say this. Google only controls so much. Another large player or enough smaller developers working together could change the direction. And no, you don't really need play services, play store, etc. There are alts like f-Droid and see my earlier sentence.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Lineage OS is great and all but at the end of the day most phones have google malware