nixCraft đ§The website âKeep Android Openâ is an initiative to protest and advocate against a new policy by Google which bans sideloading apps. The goal is to pressure Google to reverse or modify this policy to protect the open nature of the Android platform and the ability to sideload or use 3rd party app stores without excessive restrictions https://keepandroidopen.org
Drew
F4GRX SĂ©bastien@crmsnbleyd @nixCraft to go where? iOS?
River@crmsnbleyd @f4grx @nixCraft The biggest issue with open source phone OS'es currently (at least to me) is that they're incredibly lacking in terms of hardware support. Not even the "feel free to install, but if you've got weird hardware you're on your own", but rather, the line currently tends to be "if you do not own one of these 17 specific devices, you cannot run this OS. Period."
It's hard, I've owned my phone since like 2021, I don't intend to upgrade for several more years, but I don't like the way Android is going currently either. But if the hardware isn't supported for FOSS, there's not much I can really do.
@riverpunk @f4grx @nixCraft you're in the same boat if you want to buy an iOS phone ÂŻ\_ (ă) _/ÂŻ
I do wish the device support was wider. I would love to be able to know enough to port something to my phone.
@crmsnbleyd @riverpunk @nixCraft sorry no, if you buy an iphone you know exactly in what foot you are shooting yourself and with what weapon.
draeath@f4grx @crmsnbleyd @riverpunk @nixCraft either way you end up with a leaky foot; there's no practical distinction.
@crmsnbleyd @f4grx @nixCraft right but that's kind of my point, isn't it?
Like, we're not gonna unfuck ourselves from digital hell by just like, making the "correct" consumer choices. it might help, but the world we exist in is so incredibly biased to make it difficult to run these FOSS OS'es for mobile.
The proper solution is necessarily going to have to be a structural one, something systemic. I don't like the way that the common refrain to all problems caused by unregulated capitalism as it intersects with tech is always just "switch to [Linux/Graphine/etc]", when clearly the problems are far deeper entrenched than that. I want people to think first about the systems, and only secondarily about small scale ways they can alleviate some of those systemic pains.
@pluralistic has a great blog post about enshittification being a systemic issue rather than an individual choice problem: https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/31/unsatisfying-answers/
Justin Macleod@riverpunk @crmsnbleyd @f4grx @nixCraft @pluralistic Except that individuals can't usually change deeply entrenched systems. Maybe the emphasis on what the individual can do comes from a lack of belief that the system will change or can be changed. After all, it's not in the people proffiting from it mosts' interests to change it and they have the control.
@riverpunk graphene can run anything android can and challenges things like play protect as monopolistic in EU courts. It's not any less convenient to use graphene other than device support.
Tall Simon@riverpunk @crmsnbleyd @f4grx @nixCraft I have wondered if the solution to obscurity and complexity would be to make the manufacturer liable for return or repair of a product which "does not function as described."
That description is hard (NP hard) for phones.
Of course, if the source code is released, and it is reasonably legible and well engineered, that's the full description.
In the end, we have to get politicians to push on a few, appropriately simple, and hard-to-avoid pressure points if we are going to fix the situation.