Would Androids be “useless” without google apps? I really don’t think so. Sure, less convenient, but GrapheneOS exists and is doing stellar. We have also known for a while this stuff is heavily subsidized by carriers. Thats why you have locked versions of phones and the like.
It is scummy. But this isn’t even close to the worst of what Google does. We can also take Android for ourselves and already have (GrapheneOS, as mentioned). I love Android, but I am unsure how beneficial these big tech giants are becoming.
Fire tablets already proved this. They don’t use Google apps, they have their own app store and their own push. And they sold tons of them. All of this can be done and Android isn’t “useless” without it. It’s just harder.
I love Android, but I am unsure how beneficial these big tech giants are becoming.
The problem becomes that you kind of don’t have a choice. Sure someone else can stand up their own OS/push/store, but unfortunately their monopoly of sorts ends up useful in these cases because it means literally everyone develops against it. You can get your own store working, but it’s only as popular as the number of developers who choose to support it. If you fragment the stores, you make them less useful, so by nature they kinda need to be a monopoly.
I just wish it ended up differently such that the behemoth store was owned by someone different than the manufacturer themselves.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@lemmy.world
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Would Androids be “useless” without google apps? I really don’t think so. Sure, less convenient, but GrapheneOS exists and is doing stellar. We have also known for a while this stuff is heavily subsidized by carriers. Thats why you have locked versions of phones and the like.
It is scummy. But this isn’t even close to the worst of what Google does. We can also take Android for ourselves and already have (GrapheneOS, as mentioned). I love Android, but I am unsure how beneficial these big tech giants are becoming.
Fire tablets already proved this. They don’t use Google apps, they have their own app store and their own push. And they sold tons of them. All of this can be done and Android isn’t “useless” without it. It’s just harder.
The problem becomes that you kind of don’t have a choice. Sure someone else can stand up their own OS/push/store, but unfortunately their monopoly of sorts ends up useful in these cases because it means literally everyone develops against it. You can get your own store working, but it’s only as popular as the number of developers who choose to support it. If you fragment the stores, you make them less useful, so by nature they kinda need to be a monopoly.
I just wish it ended up differently such that the behemoth store was owned by someone different than the manufacturer themselves.