this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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Google’s Android, the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, started life as open-source software. In its quest for ever-greater profits, the tech giant has been gradually eroding Android’s open-source nature over the last decade.

Originally published on The Lever, but that one asks you to sign up.

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[–] No1@aussie.zone 31 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The stupid attempt to have everyone leave bluetooth always on pisses me off. They've made the BT quick tile 2 more presses to toggle on or off is ridiculous. It's not a quick tile.

I've just put a BT on/off widget on my home screen.

[–] Eagle0110@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There is an Xposed module to replace the tiles back to a simple on/off toggle, for both BT tile and WiFi tile.

You need to grab your control back lol

Also if you don't have root on your personal Android devices these days... lol may Google have mercy on you lmao (hint: they won't lol)

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[–] yopyop@sh.itjust.works -2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Could you develop on "attempt to have everyone leave bluetooth" ? What do they want us to use instead ?

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[–] Canuck@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Mobile GNU/Linux is getting better, but I think it is 5-10 years out from what's needed. I suppose people need to adopt Desktop first. The nice thing is you can install Android apps including Google Play on it natively, and they appear in your app drawer like a regular app

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

you can install Android apps including Google Play on it natively

What whaaaat? I didn't know this! Thanks for the tip

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah how the hell do you do this?

[–] Canuck@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Which do you recommend? How well does it work? :)

[–] Westlyroots@pawb.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Waydroid, it's the wayland continuation of anbox. From what I've seen and used, it's very good. It's good enough for most mobile apps including gaming. Some linux phone manufacturers even make it a point to integrate waydroid by default to allow you to use android apps just fine

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[–] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's a bit of a catch honestly.

OSS/community Linux graphical environments have kind of always been ~5 years out from what's needed. 15 years ago they were behind ~5 years, 5 years ago they where behind ~5 years.

The only difference is today. I think they're only behind by ~3-4 years thanks to the backwards movement of things like Windows and OSx staleness.

Mobile operating systems are in a worse place.

[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I just saw KDE Bigscreen got reboot. While it's not exactly the same (its for TVs, like Android TV and Steam Big Picture mode), it's nice to see major desktop environments(DE) adopt new UI features for small and large devices. This compliments work done by groups like PinePhone, who laid the groundwork for Linux phones.

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[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The obfuscated nature of compiled code does an incredible amount of heavy lifting on behalf of shareholders. Imagine a world where x-ray specs suddenly revealed source code. The flight to open solutions would be irresistible. Windows is hot garbage but it clings to its market share like a limpet, through the magic of closed source, occupying space like a flabby tumour. It doesn't care if it kills the host because the top priority is growth and an unassailable market share. That's the magic of capitalism.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

Honestly I don't think many people would care? Until the security holes became intractable, I guess.

Its proven Android phones are doing awful stuff, even client side, and has that slowed them down?

[–] majster@lemmy.zip 69 points 2 days ago (2 children)

MS keeps making Windows worse but that is not a problem because Linux is great on PCs. The reason is that PC is made out of standardized plug&play components that you can make generic OS image for.

There is no such thing in smartphone world. Each chipset is it's own Linux fork that gets only most crucial bug fixes while in warranty. Same is true for ARM SBCs where I believe the only board that supports generic image are new RPis.

[–] Natanael@infosec.pub 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Both ARM itself and Linux for ARM has been standardizing a fair bit recently. But not to the extent to be fully generic, mostly just enough for portable bootable kernels - and after that you still need all the same custom drivers and configurations to make proper use of a SoC, but it's not nothing.

https://linuxgizmos.com/ebbr-spec-to-bring-standardization-to-embedded-linux-boot-process/

[–] majster@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The article is 7 years old. Has anything come to fruition since then?

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[–] usernameunnecessary@lemmy.zip 147 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Unfortunately the Android experience is getting more and more bloated and users' freedom to tinker with their phones or sideload apps is getting more and more difficult. The Play Store is riddled with more ads than useful content. Just try searching for something, and oftentimes more than half of your screen is ads.

I've been with Android since the start and I hate what Google is reducing it to. It pains me that the only viable alternative is Apple and I feel trapped.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Is there no Linux for mobile options currently available?

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[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Play Store is truly vile to use. It just feels gross and scammy and like a mine field of low quality slop and scam apps.

iOS isn’t great either but it at least feels a whole lot better. The iOS store needs the ability to report fraid which it doesn’t sort until you install an app.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

The iOS store needs the ability to report fraid which it doesn’t sort until you install an app.

That's probably to reduce brigading? Android and iOS are infested with all sorts of fraduelnt marketing techniques like fake reviews, and mass fraud reporting for competition sounds like another.

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[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 41 points 2 days ago (6 children)

F-Droid is a decent replacement for the play store. Lots of FOSS and less-enshittified apps available.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago

Unfortunately many of the apps needed just to exist as a member of society are only available in the Play Store.

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[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

We're all trapped. If you're not using either Android or iOS, you're pretty much screwed.

Technically, you can use one of the alternate phones, but the software support still leaves a lot to be desired. You can get most basic things working, but when it comes to crucial deal breaker apps like anything involving payments or banks, it gets a lot trickier. The world has become increasingly dependent on mobile phones, and if your phone can't handle train tickets, mail deliveries, restaurant reservations or pay your bills, it suddenly becomes very difficult to live in the 2020s.

More and more hardware also depends on specific iOS or Android apps, and those apps may also require GAPPS or some OEM Android. At some point, it just isn't worth the hassle, and it becomes easier to pick either one of the toxic platforms everyone else is already using.

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 88 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Google keeps making everything worse.

[–] Bongles@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's telling how incompetent they've become when their LLM AI is the absolute worst one, including mechahitler before that update.

[–] Ricaz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

I like Gemini a lot and use it often, but I did disable it for web search.

[–] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 31 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)
[–] oaklandnative@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Thanks for these, especially the "we're not going anywhere" link. I was hesitant to switch because I was worried about future support on my Pixel 7. Here's the full quote for anyone that didn't check the above link:

Many companies and individuals are trying to mislead people about the future of GrapheneOS to promote their insecure products and services. GrapheneOS is not going anywhere. We've made it clear we're shipping Android 16 soon and that the supported devices will remain supported.

[–] Zink@programming.dev 11 points 1 day ago

I find myself using desktop Linux more than my mobile device, even on the couch with the family. Monitors on arms that can swing out of the way ftw. No cute advice for keyboards though. We have wireless ones around but I still use my wired Deck Legend on my lap. It’s an old mechanical keyboard that’s built like a tank, with the PCB literally mounted to a sheet of metal that is mounted inside the housing, lol.

It’s almost a shame, because smart phones are still absolutely amazing to me as far as the amount of scientific and technical advancement that can fit in the palm of your hand. But I look forward to the open options various parties are working on.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 57 points 2 days ago

Google should be broken up and its leadership fined into oblivion for anti competitive behavior

[–] Flukas88@feddit.it 33 points 2 days ago (9 children)

Sadly iOS is not much better

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