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> You know that Android is open source... Technically Android is OpenSource. De-facto - its not. For many many years now Google is adding all non-os function
by guytv 6y ago
> You know that Android is open source...
Technically Android is OpenSource.
De-facto - its not.
For many many years now Google is adding all non-os functionality into "support" libraries, "Google Services" - the name changes periodically - but the essence is the same: Making sure that any Android that is not "Google certified" won't be able to run Android apps - which all use these libraries - and won't have apps such as YouTube, Gmail, Photos come pre-installed..
- londons_explore 6y agoBut there is an opensource implementation of those support services (microg) which work for most apps.
- guytv 6y agooh, nice. I didn't know about it. It is a huge undertaking, google has services from "simple" things like location, to complex things like face recognition.
- londons_explore 6y agoI believe many of the microg services are mocked out in a way that makes apps 'work', but complex things like step counting in Google fit or face recognition will always return some bogus results. Still, it makes 99% of apps work.
- fsflover 6y agoExcept the drivers are always closed, so you cannot run any OS that you like or have long-term support.