Google: “Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified. We are designing this flow specifically to resist coercion, ensuring that users aren’t tricked into bypassing these safety checks while under pressure from a scammer. It will also include clear warnings to ensure users fully understand the risks involved, but ultimately, it puts the choice in their hands.”
Thank god. I would’ve ditched Android for good if this went through, and while it sounds like it would be annoying for casual users to enable unverified apps, at least we can still install them.
Users only need to eat half of a shit sandwich!
This is less terrible news, not good news.
Yea no, just don’t change things. Things are good as they are without them trying to encroach further on our ownership of our devices.
It’s always the same, big shocking announcement, public outcry, pushing forward with a less shocking version, public acceptance, and then rolling out the rest of the initial plan. Why do we keep falling for it?
Its like getting robbed at gunpoint. Not much you can do about it.
Give a fascist an inch…
Easing up? Don’t fucking touch it. Google is already annoying me with their play protect warnings.
They are going to make this into a “1 step back 2 steps forward” type of situation. This is that 1 step back and in a few months there will be 2 steps forward where they will completely ban all non play store apps.
Good, but I still don’t trust Google and I really want Linux (you know what I mean) on my next phone.
That’d be nice, but Linux on phones is still a pipe dream.
Linux on phones or desktops suffer from one major problem as I see it, too much choice.
You make a Windows app it has to work with the latest couple versions, same with Mac.
Make one for Linux and you have to test it against dozens of popular distros, package it in multiple ways, and hope the dependencies are gonna match.
It’s an awesome system for IT people and server admins, but for the end user, ehhh… That seems to be the problem things like snap and flat packs are aimed at fixing, which could transition to phones but first you gotta herd the cats into an agreed state.
AFAIK Faiphone 4/5 and OnePlus 6 are in a very good state on PostmarketOS and continually improving. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to say we’ll have fully working devices in half a year - year with the amount of progress that’s happened since the PinePhone and was boosted again by the original Google announcement.
Fairphones are probably not daily-able for now, sadly. E.g. on FP4 GPS doesn’t work at all and there are issues with charging/battery reporting AFAIR. OnePlus 6 is definitely more promising ATM, but there are camera issues and you need to do a weird reflashing dance to get GPS to work. Otherwise it’s… passable as a daily phone.
Battery fuel guage is almost ready for FP4 at least:
https://fosstodon.org/@z3ntu/115435804332775702
And there has been recent successes by the same guy (employed at Fairphone) on getting cameras working (main post of the thread linked above).
These are recent improvements, and I really hope they can solve the audio stability and GPS stuff so I can move. Thinking of trying out Ubuntu Touch before a mainline distro is ready.
Ooh, cool! Might be my new phone when the current one cacks or Android becomes completely unusable.
Isn’t oneplus 6 a phone from
2018???
it is, but SD845 is still pretty fast
Nothing wrong with it, if you just use it for music listening/youtube/light browsing/satnav/messaging, snapdragon845 is more than enough. Consumables like batteries and back glass can be bought new from AliExpress for like $10. The screen is OLED and so prone to burn-in, but will probably last at least a few more years before cacking it completely.
Probably not good enough for modern gaming and stuff, but passable for most tasks.
Look at furios’s phones. They seem yo work.
I saw there is pine phone that is supposed to have Linux or it doesn’t? Didn’t look much into it but was thinking about trying it out.
I have a pine phone - they’re super neat because linux on a phone! but… not really usable yet. Not getting texts, random bugs (they fixed the one where you could only receive calls, not make them, but that took a year or more), incredibly laggy UI even just trying to navigate,the battery life is abysmal, the battery management hardware is lacking and the software is even worse, the UIs that exist are poorly supported, basic apps are decently represented but anything not built for mobile is going to be godawful to get working (esp. through something like waydroid), the UI stabbed my puppy, the devices are so underpowered you’re gonna be unable to do things like have two apps open at once or have a video playing in one tab while trying to navigate in another…
The pro phone has supposedly improved the hardware issues, but it’s new and niche enough that I haven’t seen much of a consens emerge (or hardly any in depth testing at all, really). Fairphone is much more usuable, still not without it’s glitches but much better than the pinephones.
It’s great that smart people are working on this, but I don’t think we can expect hobbyists to make a useful OSS implementation of smartphones. Especially since there is so much dependence on the hardware. We either need a company that can throw some weight behind it, or just straight up governments that value it (e.g. from a sovereignty point of view).
The Linux phones that exist today (including Pine Phone) are more like early dev kits. They have really weak specs, are incredibly buggy, lack all sorts of features you’d expect, and I’m not totally sure if you can even make calls through them because phone carriers require a verified device and proprietary tech to work.
There are efforts to get things in order but these will take maybe 10 years at this rate.
I can absolutely make phone calls with both my One Plus 6T and my PinePhone.
It’s not that straightforward - pinephones have varying results depening on carriers, Verizon is notorious for blacklisting them while most of the other major carriers are hit or miss on if you’ll get penalized.
Yes, Open Google free Android or a Linux without Google.
Well we are already getting a popup warning when installing apps outside of the play store. You also have to enable the actual source where you get the file from/try to install it from for allowing installation of these apps.
How massively complicated are they thinking to make this that people are not “coerced” into installing? Also there is really no need to pressure anyone to download a scammy app. There’s plenty on the play store.
My bet is that they will just remove the GUI settings for alternative APK installation sources, and require you to explicitly allow them via terminal (
adb shellor similar). This will probably scare off 99% of regular users, while keeping devs relatively happy. The end result (making it harder to install FOSS and pirated software) will still be achieved.Or enable it via the dev menu, which is normally hidden
That feels too easy for the requirements they’re announcing, no? It just adds like 12 taps to scammer’s instructions, 10 of which is the taps to show developer menu.
OP is either deluded or in bad faith.
This WILL go through, just slightly later to try to make less noise.
Linux phones are the only choice left.
Deluded or in bad faith for sharing official news?
mostly for endorsing it with your commentary; your position seems to be “we won, everybody drop your weapons and party, google is good again”
and you follow by bashing linux phones in your subsequent comments…
“deluded or bad faith” does seem to fit here bud
There aren’t any Linux phones ready for day-to-day use yet. A delay gives them more time.
I don’t believe it. We need actual options Vs Android.
$100 says they’re just going to make it require adb.
I’m guessing they’re going to hide it in developer tools with a bunch of warnings and no explanation on how to get there so regular users don’t turn it on by accident.
Which would actually make sense.
That was the plan before this latest announcement. Presumably this will be something different, hopefully allowing F-Droid and friends to keep working on-device somehow.
Did you read the article?
The company is building a new ‘advanced flow’ that allows these users to accept the risks of installing unverified apps. Previously, the only permitted method for experienced users to install apps from unverified developers was to use ADB.
Google never actually mentioned ADB, so the article and you are misinformed.
If you need to use adb to set a flag once that’s not too bad I suppose…
Oh no nothing so user-friendly. They’re gonna require them to be loaded via adb every time. And they’ll say that’s the only way they could do it for security or some shit.
That was already the case with the plan they had. This is supposedly something different.
hey just like Microsoft eased up on recall!
Two steps forward, one step back
…is the easiest way to get a controversial change through.
Decide what you want to do, suggest something way more absurd, the go “oh we listened and we are only going to do [the original thing we wanted to in the first place]”
Is any national dictator’s army yet doing the “two steps forward, one step back” march to appear less scary?
are they actually being rid of the “give us your id and pay to be certified to install” nonsense
It sounds like they’re just going to make it more difficult to sideload.
