Comment on Funny how android used to be what we now call FOSS

• blackbrook@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  And one of those things, in practice, makes it harder for users to take advantage of the openness of the other.

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  • wander1236@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Only on that platform. The Android™ platform is way more popular than AOSP, but that doesn’t mean Android™ precludes AOSP.

    For the purposes of making a custom Android-based OS like GrapheneOS, AOSP is better than ever. Whether or not there are actually devices to install GrapheneOS on kind of isn’t the point here in my mind since we’re talking about which one someone prefers, which means they’re already able to use both.

    And as GrapheneOS’ existence demonstrates, it’s still pretty easy and even increasingly mainstream now to change your device’s firmware. GrapheneOS currently is only built for Pixel devices, made by Google, the company that also develops AOSP and owns the Android brand. In theory Lenovo is going to have a Motorola branded device running GrapheneOS officially in the near future, but Lenovo doesn’t have a great track record with mobile software support.

    Android™ itself might be getting more locked down and centered around Google’s services, but it’s still an option to move to something else based on AOSP, and thanks to things like Project Treble (which is enforced by Google Play’s compatibility tests), you might not even need device-specific firmware to have a usable and pleasant non-proprietary experience.

    The situation with Android is weird, because Google technically owns all of it, but it’s completely different departments going completely different directions, and it doesn’t help that we all call the entire concept Android when that’s technically the brand for Google’s special certified versions of AOSP (which also includes the word Android but not as a brand…).

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