Meanwhile the Play Store is full of scams. This isn’t about safety, it making sure they get a cut from the scam apps.
It’s a trashpile. If I need an app, I search ‘site:reddit android app x’ or look in f-droid
I fucking hate that word. It’s not ‘sideloading’ to install on my own device what I want to install, to use the apps I want to use; to not use the apps I don’t want to use. I am not ‘sideloading’ anything when I install programs on my PC. No different on my phone.
Fuck off with all these new bullshit terms that are only used to imply that what we’re doing (with our own devices) is somehow outside the norm, to justify the constant enshittifcation and the growing stranglehold these corporations want on our lives. It’s infuriating.
@wide_eyed_stupid @Gsus4 “You will own nothing, and if you don’t like it you can talk to the security cyberdog that has you in its sights.”
@wide_eyed_stupid @Gsus4
They’re “sideloading” our vocabularyI’m sure there’s something in the EULA about how it’s actually their device and we are just licensing it, just like software. I hate this tech feudalism so much.
You know, it’s very possible, because I’ve never actually read an entire EULA, I don’t think.
“I have read and agree to the Terms” is the biggest lie on the web. Together, we can fix that.
@wide_eyed_stupid @arararagi I will never read the TOS and if it says I can’t use the machine I own as I see fit, they can shove the EULA and the DMCA it rode in on up their ass sideways.
It’s not a “bullshit new term”, it’s three decades old and means transferring files locally from one device to another, instead of directly downloading or uploading from/to an external server.
The origin goes back to MP3.com and i-drive in late 90’s, but the most common sideloading people did was downloading music to their PC using services like iTunes, and transferring them to their mp3 players. As they did often with early PDA and smartphone apps, where the term for Android comes from - get the .apk on your computer, transfer it to your phone, and install it.
Sideloading.Fair, it’s not a new term. I was born in the 80’ies, I’m familiar with the concept.
However, it’s now being used with new bullshit meaning (i.e. going outside the Google/Apple app and their own offered selection), and media are normalizing this use.
so you’re saying it is the wrong word, because most apks are downloaded from the internet on-device. That is not a local transfer
It is still the same installation method, directly installing the .apk file, from way back when the term for Android usage was defined. So, kinda, but also kinda not. Also, if you do use ADB to do the install from a PC, the command is “ADB sideload filename” which will do the transfer and installation to the memory directly. Then it truly is sideloading as defined.
Android doesn’t use ROMs (Read-only Memory) any more either, because the filesystems are now writable. But Lineage etc are still called custom ROMs, because the end result hasn’t changed.
Okay, but Google uses it in a way where directly going to the server they host F-Droid.apk, downloading and installing it counts as sideloading.
If anything, using Google Play is sideloading by that definition, since I can’t just download a release from the originators’ server, they need to first transfer it into a secondary location, Google’s servers, and I can only install it from there.
@JohnEdwa @wide_eyed_stupid indeed. but it takes only a single incendiarily indignant but factually wrong mastodon post to force anyone left who’s still reading wikipedia to clarify forever, because the OP is being parroted until hell freezes over.
@JohnEdwa @wide_eyed_stupid the correct take would be “i should be free to sideload software to my devices in any way i please”.
@lritter @JohnEdwa @wide_eyed_stupid unfortunately the term has been anti-reclaimed by corpos for use to imply it’s outside the norm to have control over what runs on your own device
@zaire @wide_eyed_stupid @JohnEdwa it’s our term. just like the sparkles emoji. they can’t claim anything. it’s all ours. they can go to hell.
remember when people were actually excited about new android releases because they were weird and consumer friendly?
My entire job depends on such an app, so this is a bit of a relief.
So about those linux phones…
Aaaaaaany day now… guys…?
(I have a pinephone and no, it is absolutely nowhere near ready)
My guess is that any good Linux phone experience would need greater funding from some company or foundation…(Valve please?)
That’s kind of a double edged sword though. Android got a foothold because a small scrappy unknown company in silicon valley brought them into the fold…
It’s not if it’s done right, android is problematic because it’s not a community project, it’s just a code dump.
case in point, the linux kernel itself
The Pinephone used way underpowered hardware when it came out.
Regardless, there’s been a lot of progress from postmarketOS and others the past years and especially accelerated once again with the original announcement to kill installing apps outside of the PlayStore.
I’ve also gone ahead and put in a reservation for the new Jolla phone to support another alternative.
No NA sales :(
Perfect time for the Chinese to setup a shell company in Mexico that sells smartphones & devices with AOSP-android-based OS to the US. It’ll sell like hot cakes.
It’ll sell like hot cakes.
Nope… lot of apps won’t run.
Nobody is buying a phone without Google Play Certification.
Not to mention, some carriers like ATT have a weird whitelist thing.
Also, there might be compatibility issues with provisioning the SIM, since I just had an issue with LineageOS breaking data connection, but restoring factory rom fixes it, then I flash Lineage again and it broke again, so yeah… I expect similar issues with a “Non- Google Play Certified” device.
Biggest thing is: Netflix Widewine defaults back to L3 instead of L1 requited for HD stuff
Before you say “just pirate”, most people don’t know how to do that. Also somethings can’t even get pirated since its so niche.
Boiling the frog
It’s all about herding people by dictating the path of least resistance.
If Google continues to round the corners of their Google Play triangle icon, it’ll become a circle in a few years
They’re not killing sideloading, they’re just building the gallows and sharpening the axe.
The outrage doesn’t stop anything, it just makes them slow their plans and wait out the public outrage.
This is from November, and is about the ‘student accounts’ thing which doesn’t at all help the central issue of being forced to make an account to distribute your app
I use GrapheneOS (Lineage OS and CyanogenMod before that) and I’m perfectly happy witn alternative software installation sources.
The company has confirmed that it is developing an “advanced flow” to let experienced users install apps from unverified developers
How about don’t change it at all, Google
They must really hate ReVanced.
Oh, I bet. They probably hate GrayJay more though.
GrapheneOS is luckily out of their jurisdiction :)
Great, more hoops to jump thr… I mean… an “advanced flow”, for gaining the privilege of installing apps of your choosing
