No matter the manufacturer, every Android phone has one thing in common: its software base. Manufacturers can heavily customize the look and feel of the Android OS they ship on their Android devices, but under the hood, the core system functionality is derived from the same open-source foundation: the Android Open Source Project. After over 16 years, Google is making big changes to how it develops the open source version of Android in an effort to streamline its development.
Google confirmed to Android Authority that it is committed to publishing Android’s source code, so this change doesn’t mean that Android is becoming closed-source. The company will continue to publish the source code for new Android releases, so when Google releases Android 16 later this year, we’ll get the source code for the update. In addition, Google will continue to publish the source code for Android’s Linux kernel fork, as it is licensed under GPLv2, which mandates source code releases, and is separate from AOSP.
I could only hope this would make a good case for some EU-funded project for a fully open RISC 5 Linux phone.
The problem is software. The ecosystem of android is gigantic. Every business, big or small has an app.
Microsoft tried and failed. No users, no apps. No apps, no users.
Google actively worked against Microsoft and got what they wanted: no competition.
If you have Linux, you have waydroid. There can be a transition time, just like the Steam Deck is making clear the need of a windows computer for gaming is now irrelevant.
Biggest issue is banking apps, those need some sort of care to make work either by increasing the amount of Linux phones or by introducing patches that convince these banking apps that waydroid is legit (likely to be fixed)
Banking apps just buy into false security peddled by google. They are absolutely not necessary for security of an app, just like kernel level DRM & anti cheat is not necessary for video games.
Yeah, they’re the same situation of anti cheats, and banking apps might be even more conservative on these decisions vs. game developers
In case people missed or are unaware of the context:
https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/2024/doj-google-must-divest-chrome-possibly-android-google-fires-back
https://www.howtogeek.com/united-states-doj-google-android-chrome-split/
The DoJ recently (before Trump got elected) won an anti-trust lawsuit against Google, and the lawsuit is currently in the stage of haggling over the extent of the penalty actions taken against Google as a result.
One of the things the DoJ is pushing for is breaking off not only Chrome but also Android from Google to just leave Google with its search stuff.
This is like splitting up Bell from decades ago.
What Google is doing right now is strategic positioning to be able to argue that Android can’t be split off from Google without causing them too much pain, and by making Android more and more dependent on, and nonfunctional without being under the same corporate ownership.
This is a powerplay to try to not be broken up so hard by the anti-trust lawsuit they already lost.
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_(2020)
The actual penalty ruling is expected to come down by August 2025… unless the Trump admin fucks with it, somehow they… haven’t seemed to yet notice or care that this lawsuit is going on, despite Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, having a literal front row seat at Trump’s inauguration.
Thank you for putting this together
No problem!
Wonderful username btw, haha.
