• ericwdhs@discuss.online
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    18 hours ago

    To add to what the other reply said, developer verification comes with the implication that Google reserves the right to refuse verification. There are also legitimate reasons a developer might not even want to attempt to verify with Google to begin with. Admittedly, the vast majority of Android users probably don’t use software from outside the Google Play Store, but it’s a right they’ve always had and one Google is about to make much harder to exercise or discover, hence a loss of true device ownership for everyone.

    If you’ve only ever lived in ecosystems that only permit software installs via first-party means (think Apple or game consoles), this may not sound alarming. To those of us used to the software situation on PC, where you can freely run any software as long as it exists, this feels like a major hit to software freedom.

    • osanna@lemmy.vg
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      11 hours ago

      You can’t win. Go with Android and it’s (starting to become) a walled garden. Apple? Yep, another walled garden. What about Android roms? Yep, most apps won’t work.

      • AstralPath@lemmy.ca
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        52 minutes ago

        most apps won’t work.

        You need to do everyone a favor and stop spreading this nonsense. It’s absolutely false. Every app I’ve installed on my phone works fine, including banking apps. I use cards to make payments instead of NFC. That’s literally it.

        I’m tired of people painting ROMs and Linux as if you have to step into the stone age if you want to use them, as if it’s a massive inconvenience.

        If having to use cards to pay is enough of an inconvenience for people to rather lick Google’s boot… I don’t even know what to say.