zlacker

[return to "Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android"]
1. throw1+oe1[view] [source] 2025-08-26 02:51:51
>>kotaKa+(OP)
This is really bad. I think that most people on HN will agree with that.

The problem is that most normal people (HN is not normal - mostly for the better) don't even understand what sideloading is - let alone actually care.

How can we fix this?

(aside from making people care - apathy enables so many political problems in the current age, but it's such a huge problem that this definitely isn't going to be the impetus to fix it)

◧◩
2. nabogh+Ye1[view] [source] 2025-08-26 03:00:22
>>throw1+oe1
We need another os in the market. A duopoly just isn't competitive enough. Too bad the cost of entry is so high.
◧◩◪
3. throw1+kf1[view] [source] 2025-08-26 03:03:35
>>nabogh+Ye1
I agree with you idealistically, but practically, creating an entirely new mobile OS with market share competitive with the existing two is an unbelievably massive challenge. It'd probably be just about as easy to get people to care about sideloading in the first place.
◧◩◪◨
4. balder+ti1[view] [source] 2025-08-26 03:39:50
>>throw1+kf1
The problem is moves like this will keep happening, since people don’t have much choice. Unless we bring up a societal trend of dumb phones.
◧◩◪◨⬒
5. runarb+en1[view] [source] 2025-08-26 04:33:34
>>balder+ti1
We used to have strong consumer protection advocates on both sides of the Atlantic, and those consumer protection advocates used to influence laws and regulation which forced corporations to stop doing anti-consumer stuff like this. Those days can return with enough organized labor and solidarity among the working classes.
◧◩◪◨⬒⬓
6. calgoo+xQ1[view] [source] 2025-08-26 09:10:57
>>runarb+en1
Yea, but you will need to organize offline because chat control will catch your terrorist messages and report you to the police. And make sure to leave the phone at home so they cant see all the phones meeting in one spot. But how do you go to the location then? Public transport uses the phone for payment, your car uses the phone as authentication / key.

Its a very slippery slope that is very close to being implemented. In a way, we can hope that the current political climate somehow decimates the American corporations that control the systems, but it looks more like IBM during WW2 supplying counting machines to the Americans and to the Germans and everyone else.

The phone platform is officially lost at this point, there is too much political pressure to control it. We are going to increasingly need to rely on sneaker nets, small mesh networks, and home made "illegal" communication devices. The internet will continue to exist, but it is going to fracture more and more with the political wars that are happening at the moment.

[go to top]