4 ms·

There's no need to assume malice here. Disabling referrers is an extremely niche desire. Also how often does your laptop have an Internet connection that you ca

There's no need to assume malice here. Disabling referrers is an extremely niche desire. Also how often does your laptop have an Internet connection that you can't just join as well from the android device? I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but omitting it from base Android is hardly malicious.

zokier 10y ago
While the referral complaint is pretty silly, this networking thing is bit indicative about the "appliance"/"toy" nature of Android devices. Either there is an app for something or you can't do it. In comparison for example webOS and Maemo did the analogous thing by using mainline usbnet driver from kernel and configuring routing with standard route command etc. This is possible because they did not flinch from exposing the full power of the underlying system for those who want it. > Also how often does your laptop have an Internet connection that you can't just join as well from the android device? Corporate networks would be a common example. Or wired-only networks (yes, such things do exist still).
- scottlamb 10y ago
  > While the referral complaint is pretty silly, this networking thing is bit indicative about the "appliance"/"toy" nature of Android devices. Either there is an app for something or you can't do it. You can write an app to do something the designers of the system didn't anticipate. That's a mark of a versatile system. > In comparison for example webOS and Maemo did the analogous thing by using mainline usbnet driver from kernel and configuring routing with standard route command etc. This is possible because they did not flinch from exposing the full power of the underlying system for those who want it. I believe that, with root, you can install/load/configure kernel modules (mainline or otherwise) on Android as well. Here's a stackoverflow article talking about creating loadable kernel modules: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6282669/how-do-you-create-a-loadable-kernel-module-for-android http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6282669/how-do-you-create...
taneq 10y ago
I don't know if it counts as "assuming malice" but Google is a business, and so of course will generally act in their own best interests. You can see the underlying theme in virtually every interaction you have with Google these days, especially since ad blocking started becoming widespread. Every service they offer is structured so as to extract the maximum amount of personal information from the users of the service. Every design decision follows this underlying goal, even when doing so isn't necessary or even ideal. Everything they do is quid-pro-quo.
xorcist 10y ago
I would imagine it's very useful for automated testing.
- vvviperrr 10y ago
  Yep, one of use cases)

zokier 10y ago

While the referral complaint is pretty silly, this networking thing is bit indicative about the "appliance"/"toy" nature of Android devices. Either there is an app for something or you can't do it. In comparison for example webOS and Maemo did the analogous thing by using mainline usbnet driver from kernel and configuring routing with standard route command etc. This is possible because they did not flinch from exposing the full power of the underlying system for those who want it. > Also how often does your laptop have an Internet connection that you can't just join as well from the android device? Corporate networks would be a common example. Or wired-only networks (yes, such things do exist still).

scottlamb 10y ago
> While the referral complaint is pretty silly, this networking thing is bit indicative about the "appliance"/"toy" nature of Android devices. Either there is an app for something or you can't do it. You can write an app to do something the designers of the system didn't anticipate. That's a mark of a versatile system. > In comparison for example webOS and Maemo did the analogous thing by using mainline usbnet driver from kernel and configuring routing with standard route command etc. This is possible because they did not flinch from exposing the full power of the underlying system for those who want it. I believe that, with root, you can install/load/configure kernel modules (mainline or otherwise) on Android as well. Here's a stackoverflow article talking about creating loadable kernel modules: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6282669/how-do-you-create-a-loadable-kernel-module-for-android http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6282669/how-do-you-create...

taneq 10y ago

I don't know if it counts as "assuming malice" but Google is a business, and so of course will generally act in their own best interests. You can see the underlying theme in virtually every interaction you have with Google these days, especially since ad blocking started becoming widespread. Every service they offer is structured so as to extract the maximum amount of personal information from the users of the service. Every design decision follows this underlying goal, even when doing so isn't necessary or even ideal. Everything they do is quid-pro-quo.

xorcist 10y ago

I would imagine it's very useful for automated testing.

vvviperrr 10y ago
Yep, one of use cases)