Comment by 0xbadcafebee
5 days ago
I want Google to lock down their platform. Hardcore locked down. So locked down you can't do anything with it at all. Because people need motivation to do something hard.
Android has been a bloated walled garden for years. It should have been like a PC w/Windows or Linux: anyone should be able to make an app (any way they want), publish it, let anyone who wants to download it & run it. But that was never the plan. The plan was to provide a moat to allow mobile telephone operators (& Google) to dictate what users were allowed to do with their phones. Imagine your ISP having total control over your desktop computer. Or killing a website, or program, because the ISP doesn't like it.
It is insane that we, the people giving them the money and agency to do this, that we've allowed this to be the status quo. We need to do something about it. We need to kill Android. And from the ashes, make a new platform that works for us, and not for a corporation's profits and anti-competition.
It's really a cultural disease to accept this. From my other comment:
> I see this in people why have used antagonistic software for decades and have become zombified and shellshocked; the idea that software could be on your side is to alien to them. They['ve come to] hate software and technology and just want to get some work done. They tolerate the abuse because they can't fight Google alone; it's pointless to resist.
*minor edit in brackets
> Imagine your ISP having total control over your desktop computer. Or killing a website, or program, because the ISP doesn't like it.
It's not very hard to imagine? Most people don't expect that level of control anymore; their desktop just updates with whatever corporate slopware is pushed out seasonally. Websites come-and-go. It's not a hugely motivating rally-cry for average person.
> We need to kill Android. And from the ashes, make a new platform that works for us, and not for a corporation's profits and anti-competition.
Android is the best-working part of that equation. Microsoft supported Android apps on Windows Phone. Jolla supports Android apps on Sailfish OS. Linux supports Android apps in Waydroid. You don't have to "kill" Android as a runtime or smartphone OS; just force Google to compete with 3rd party ROMs.
> just force Google to
How exactly are you going to force Google to do something?
They way we usually do, by restricting their access to EU markets unless they comply and/or fine them, and/or threats about nationalizing the "EU Google".
What is the US going to do, apply more tariffs?
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Reminds me of this scene from Andor:
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Luthen: Turning back will be impossible. You knew where this was going. You've always knew. Has anyone ever made a weapon that wasn't used? The network has been built. It's up. It grows or it dies. We've waited long enough.
Mon: Do you realise what you've set in motion?
Luthen: It was time for that as well.
Mon: Palpatine won't hestiate now.
Luthen: Exactly. We need it. We need the fear. We need them to over-react.
Mon: You can't be serious!
Luthen: The empire has been choking us so slowly we're starting not to notice. The time has come to force their hand.
Mon: People will suffer!
Luthen: That's the plan. You're not angry with me. I'm just saying out loud what you already know. There will be no rules going forward. If you're not willing to risk your conscious then surrender and be done with.
---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao9ARb6dEfc
edited: formatting