Mastodawn

#Google trips over its own words, when they sell you #Android it's the best computing device in the world that does everything. After you bought it Google doesn't let you do anything *you* want to.

#Sideload is a made-up term. Putting software on your computer is simply called “installing”, regardless of whether that computer is in your pocket or on your desk.

What Do You Talk About When You Talk About Sideloading?

What does Google?

Here's #FDroid: https://f-droid.org/2025/10/28/sideloading.html

What We Talk About When We Talk About Sideloading | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

We recently published a blog post with our reaction to the new Google Developer Program and how it impacts your freedom to use the devices that you own in th...

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Stéphane Calonnec 🗿

@fdroidorg Keep going on guys 🙏❤️ but we do know what Android not became, but always be : Google's Monopoly toy. Time to switch to another system. Urgently we do need projects like @postmarketOS or Mobian to go from testers to full daily use, with smartphones built with open hardware. No way to keep Qualcomm/Android in this deal because one forces you to use the other one... Nice hardware and software locking system that Microsoft would love too !

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Brahms Oct 29

@scalonnec @fdroidorg @postmarketOS didnt google move away from qualcomm for their pixel devices since the pixel 6?

and afaik you can still install any OS you want on their devices?

I am not a fan of google like the next guy, but keep the reasoning in the realm of reality, please

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Stéphane Calonnec 🗿Oct 29

@brahms @fdroidorg @postmarketOS the Pixels rely on their self designed (with Samsung) Tensor. Google owns the hardware, and the firmware. This way, they control everything and can open source, close when they want, or make the CPU not supported when they want - the Apple way. Same for Qualcomm. There's anything open source and it does kill any side project.
Pixels are the basic development platform, making them a bit more open, but it stops here. On a Pixel, you can install any OS but Android.

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Brahms Oct 29

@scalonnec @fdroidorg @postmarketOS its a technicality, but I doubt graphene will deploy any upstream change that will close the hardware up, so at least until my phone stops getting support, im fine.

not sure what you mean with that last sentence.

the solution is actually well known: get a publicly funded hardware stack that offers acceptable security capabilities. I dont see this happening anytime soon, so pixel + graphene is the way to go atm

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Stéphane Calonnec 🗿Oct 30

@brahms Yes I do agree, we do rely on closed hardware and that's the first problem ; open sourcing blobs would allow to install anything...
GrapheneOS (which is an AOSP Android : even "open source", Google is the game master and makes the rules, just what's happening now) seems to have strange partnership, it's secured, open source but I feel there's some money behind... That's just my own feeling.
Sorry for my last sentence, I was saying that on Pixel, you only can install Android...