This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I swear to god how many time it has to pass until developers realize open source is just a facade only Free Software licences are free as in freedom
Preach
huh, look at that. the thing people were warned about when buying pixel phones happened.
I was about to buy one next year… what do you recommend instead?
Long time coming, Play Integrity (or whatever's called nowadays) restrictions have effectively killed any alternative distributions.
This fucking sucks. Cyberpunk dystopia
In cyberpunk dystopia you could buy normal things, just most wasn't it.
That was bound to happen at some point. Buying a Google device to then "degoogle" it never sit quite right with me.
I bought mine secondhand because I had a bad feeling about giving google money just to degoogle as well but still really wanted to use GrapheneOS
Amen but here we are
So I installed LineageOS recently. Now that I've transferred my passwords and account info I'm quite happy. What will happen from here? Will some apps stop working? If not, is there a problem with just continuing to use the phone as is until I need a new phone (security, eg)?
No.
Damn, I've just switched to Pixel 3a XL I got for $100 and then installed Evolution OS.
I am running GOS on a Pixel 7, which means I've had this device for ~2.5 years at this point, and back when I transitioned to this setup I was aware they were talking about being beholden to Pixels due to the hardware security module not being available on other devices.
It has been a known issue. I understand it is a very difficult and costly undertaking to develop new hardware and new entrants would be competing against the big guys for fab space, manufacturing and assembly etc.
We need some kind of nonprofit or independently financed group to advance this cause. Could it be FUTO, Framework, or some other company/organization like this?
There would be market incentive to solve these problems - There has got to be a lot of demand for a neutral hardware platform that meets the hardware security module and other requirements for bootloader security, custom ROMs, etc.
Now more than ever we need more work on PostmarketOS, Mobian, Gnome Mobile etc...
Bummer that it's still so hard to find a somewhat modern, affordable phone that is Linux compatible
Yeah, I'd totally buy a phone running one of those provided it does all the phone things properly: SMS/MMS, reliable calls, all day battery, etc. I don't need fancy apps, I just need a working phone.
If I can get that, I could probably donate some time porting apps.
It's so crazy (technically understandable, but still crazy) to me that reliably receiving calls is still such a major issue
More like A-no-SP
It's Nopen Source
ACSP
The company says this is because it’s shifting its AOSP reference target from Pixel hardware to a virtual device called “Cuttlefish” to be more neutral.
This actually probably make sense, but they could still be cool and have pixel drivers be open source in a different repo if that was the only reason.
Yeah, just that this has shit to do with the stated reasons. Google hasn't been an open source ally for quite some time now
Do you think it may be related to the monopoly issues they are currently facing?
Quite possibly, the GrapheneOS team seems to think so:
Yup, the entire culture of Google has nearly changed. It used to be coder- and innovation-driven, and open-source was a natural thing to support. Make more money by growing the pie, creating markets with new tech.
Now it seems it's middle managers and MBAs calling the shots, and their strategy is generic business zero-sum mindset - lock down, restrict, extract. They still see the PR value in open-source, but that's it.
Just becoming 1990s Microsoft or 1980s IBM.
This is not good, this is why I don't like permissive licenses.
AOSP can be fully abandoned and privately forked by Google without it technically being "dead," but that abandonment would effectively kill the project.
Does this mean Graphene is dead? Probably the real reason they would do this is to kill Graphene.
This fits into Google tying Android closer to them, same with the recent move of only making release source publicly available.
They're regretting having started Android as an "open" platform and want to gain control fast, maybe preparing for the current anti-trust trials they are facing in the US.
The GrapheneOS team is very aware of their dependence on google. They are planning to either find an OEM for their own line of hardware or a brand whose phones support their requirements other than google. That being said, it will complicate work a lot, but for now it would be to early to jump to that conclusion.
Also, Google couldn't care less if <1% of buyers flash a custom ROM / OS on their phone, this is about tying the android ecosystem closer to google in general. Most other big phone manufacturers know this and are trying to come up with their own solution, like Huawei had to because of the ban when the orange man has been president the first time.
If Pine64 can spec out a reasonably decent prototype of a phone and Purism can sell theirs for 2 grand (not worth it), then somebody else can legit come out with something just the same. Pine64 project and Purism cannot be the only communities that can somehow come out with these kinds of tech. Better yet, more people should be jumping to help out these guys to be free from Google and Apple dominance.
Teracube just came out with their 3 phone Teracube 2s, and of course there is Fairphone
