Google's new developer mandate is hitting alternative app stores hard. F-Droid says forced registration, fees, and ID checks could end the open-source project.
It’s still Android kernel and drivers :/ but it is private. For Linux you’d need postmarket or one of their derivatives and they are fighting to get cameras and power under control.
prob the best we have at the moment.
edit: to be clear, I’m saying Halium is the best we have at the moment, real linux is trucking along but it’s still a long way out.
By “Google’s fuckery” you mean “Google doing all the updates and giving it to them” though, right?
Until these alternative AOSP-derived OS developers stop relying on Google and start doing their own stuff, Google will have the ability to break their OS’s. This isn’t a Google issue, it’s a OS developer issue.
I think the big problem with this, as far as I know, is that this code needs pretty rapid security updates that require a fairly huge and experienced team of people to both find, understand and implement the security changes. Otherwise it becomes very insecure very quickly. So yeah we can always use 2019 Android, etc. But it would just put you at a huge security risk.
doesn’t the same apply to any operating system, including the linux phone distributions? android has security measures that may be breached, but mobile linux has much fewer security measures at all
Yes, it does apply to every operating system - hence, the differentiator becomes whether the operating system has hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on dedicated security development. This is why a lot of companies now don’t even let you use Android devices for BYOD aside from Google or Samsung, because they’re the only companies with the resources to keep their security really up to date.
my point is that if the open source community cannot figure out just maintenance of an android system, there’s no chance of creating a real mobile linux distribution, as it would need the aforementioned maintenance and the development of additional features
Obv, they can’t take what we have, which is why for now we’re OK. The winds are shifting, though. I expect at some point, I expect android will require a deal with the devil from manufacturers. Start actively combatting linux phones.
For now, it’s a quick path to privacy, long term, we’re going to need friendly hardware
we need banking, government apps, all sort of garbage that won’t be allowed with a ten foot pole on these. rooted androids are barely allowed as it is.
There’s generally been positive reviews for FuriLab’s FLX1 model:
Their new one, the FLX1s has 2GiB more RAM (for 8GiB, in total). I’ve heard battery gets 2 days without charge even with Android emulation.
It’s still Android kernel and drivers :/ but it is private. For Linux you’d need postmarket or one of their derivatives and they are fighting to get cameras and power under control.
prob the best we have at the moment.
edit: to be clear, I’m saying Halium is the best we have at the moment, real linux is trucking along but it’s still a long way out.
and what’s the problem with android other than google’s fuckery?
Assuming google’s fuckery doesn’t affect them, nothing.
But we’re relying on google to keep up that code and not see them as a threat. Right now AOK, but in the future that makes longevity questionable.
It’s something to be noticed and understood so there’s no surprises when the company that did no evil now does all the evil.
By “Google’s fuckery” you mean “Google doing all the updates and giving it to them” though, right?
Until these alternative AOSP-derived OS developers stop relying on Google and start doing their own stuff, Google will have the ability to break their OS’s. This isn’t a Google issue, it’s a OS developer issue.
they can take down the code today and not much will happen, as the code is mirrored elsewhere.
I think the big problem with this, as far as I know, is that this code needs pretty rapid security updates that require a fairly huge and experienced team of people to both find, understand and implement the security changes. Otherwise it becomes very insecure very quickly. So yeah we can always use 2019 Android, etc. But it would just put you at a huge security risk.
doesn’t the same apply to any operating system, including the linux phone distributions? android has security measures that may be breached, but mobile linux has much fewer security measures at all
Yes, it does apply to every operating system - hence, the differentiator becomes whether the operating system has hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on dedicated security development. This is why a lot of companies now don’t even let you use Android devices for BYOD aside from Google or Samsung, because they’re the only companies with the resources to keep their security really up to date.
my point is that if the open source community cannot figure out just maintenance of an android system, there’s no chance of creating a real mobile linux distribution, as it would need the aforementioned maintenance and the development of additional features
Obv, they can’t take what we have, which is why for now we’re OK. The winds are shifting, though. I expect at some point, I expect android will require a deal with the devil from manufacturers. Start actively combatting linux phones.
For now, it’s a quick path to privacy, long term, we’re going to need friendly hardware
i don’t think niche devices will save us though.
we need banking, government apps, all sort of garbage that won’t be allowed with a ten foot pole on these. rooted androids are barely allowed as it is.
Sure; but we won’t close that gap immediately. Intermediate progress can be helpful for further progress.
sure, but ownership is something they are actively trying to block. i say that as a linux nerd.
and they won’t be available in my country for a while i bet.