I know nothing about mobile OS development. How realistic is it at this point for someone to fork Android?
I know that software like Edge and Iron Fox can be forked and worked on by independent people. But Android is developed to integrate tightly with proprietary hardware.
People have done it. The problem is the huge binary blobs for hardware. Its difficult without the hardware company themselves giving you the specs to make your own.
One of the reasons fairphone is supported on many alternate platforms.
I know nothing about mobile OS development. How realistic is it at this point for someone to fork Android?
I know that software like Edge and Iron Fox can be forked and worked on by independent people. But Android is developed to integrate tightly with proprietary hardware.
Forking the OS isn’t a big issue. The big issue is people installing the fork.
To install custom rooms you have to unlock the bootloader. Which can be easy, to impossible, depending on the phone.
But unlocking the bootloader breaks many of the security features. Stuff like NFC payments no longer work. So basically the phone is crippled.
Finding a custom ROM for your particular device is also a pain. So you can get a cheap phone, a recent one, or one with custom ROMs available.
A fork won’t do you any good. This has to do with Play Services, not the OS.
No play services in GrapheneOS, and it’s working fine.
adding to this, android itself as compiled from available sources is actually pretty good and is by itself already unaffected by this change.
play services is basically how they managed to close android in the first place while still making it look open.
People have done it. The problem is the huge binary blobs for hardware. Its difficult without the hardware company themselves giving you the specs to make your own.
One of the reasons fairphone is supported on many alternate platforms.
Motorola and GOS have entered the chat
i think oneplus did for one of their older phones at one point but i can’t remember