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You can disable them, which is the same thing as far as the user is concerned. Uninstalling from a read-only partition doesn't make sense.
by lern_too_spel 7y ago
You can disable them, which is the same thing as far as the user is concerned. Uninstalling from a read-only partition doesn't make sense.
- jackewiehose 7y agoThen installing/deploying these apps on a read-only partition doesn't make much sense in the first place.
- lern_too_spel 7y agoWhy? As far as the user is concerned, the end result is the same. The app doesn't appear in the app drawer, and none of its entry points are exposed to the OS. The user who just bought a phone gets a fully functional phone right out of the box instead of having to wait for downloads. A factory reset to get back to the initial state is as simple as wiping all writable partitions.
- rhizome 7y agoPresumably the person you're replying to is a user too, so apparently the end result isn't the same for all of the people you're thinking of.
- lern_too_spel 7y agoThe person I'm responding to hasn't given any reason why the end result is meaningfully different. As far as we can tell, they just don't like the word "disable." If Android replaced the word with "uninstall," they would presumably be happy, which sounds like a minor complaint.
- saagarjha 7y agoThey take up space.
- throw_14JAS 7y agoIsn't it in a read-only partition, where, by definition, you wouldn't be able to reuse the space? Wouldn't it only be users at their storage capacity who would be affected?
- ajnin 7y agoThe fact they they are installed in a read-only partition is what makes them non-removable, if they were installed in the regular partition then the "system" partition wouldn't need to be so big, they would be removable and you could reclaim the space.
- lern_too_spel 7y agoThen you couldn't factory reset without access to a network, as I pointed out.
- MiracleUser 7y agothe experience would be the same if all the apps were disabled by default - and ONLY when the user goes to install them they are able to just enable it instead
- lern_too_spel 7y agoNo, it wouldn't. The user expects a fully functional phone out of the box, complete with web browser and mail client.
- MiracleUser 7y agoi meant the user who isnt expecting the phone to have what they want gets the experience. otherwise why allocate disk space to be read only and have apps on it people might not want? (as far as user experience is concerned)
- lern_too_spel 7y agoYou said, "the experience would be the same." For the vast majority of users who expect the device to be productive out of the box, the experience would be significantly degraded.
- MiracleUser 7y agoah yeah i did not articulate that fully. i see the implication i was making now i meant they can maintain an app store experience without the bottlneck of downloading expected apps on day 1. instead of downloading and using data an wasting time, it would enable the app. so its the same "opt-in" experience as downloading but with benefits
- kelnos 7y agoThe idea is that they should survive a factory reset, so the read-only partition is the right place for them. Obviously many of us would be fine if they didn't survive, but that's not really the point.
- randyrand 7y agoDoes that mean these apps can't be updated? Or are only updated when the OEM updates android? That's a crazy design deciscion, especially for Chrome!
- izacus 7y agoNo, it means nothing of the sort. They're updated as usual from Play Store.
- kmonsen 7y agoAlso updates can be uninstalled (since they are on the user partition).
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoThey update but the original copy on the system partition hangs around. The only way to clean them out is with a rooted phone.
- ajnin 7y agoThey still take up significant space, and they often are re-enabled automatically whenever the device gets updated.
- lern_too_spel 7y ago> They still take up significant space Not usable space. > they often are re-enabled automatically whenever the device gets updated This has never happened for me.