5 ms·

And this gives unfair advantage to Apple. People who would have rather not ventured within a mile of an ‘as closed as it gets’ iPhone are kind of forced to, be

And this gives unfair advantage to Apple. People who would have rather not ventured within a mile of an ‘as closed as it gets’ iPhone are kind of forced to, because Google on the other hand makes it between a rock and a hard place.

criddell 3y ago
I don't think there are very many people who fit that profile. Most iPhone user are pretty happy with the device. If there were a lot of people like that, I think the Microsoft Phone would still be around.
matheusmoreira 3y ago
Yeah. Google wiped out all the freedom we used to enjoy with hardware remote attestation. Now there's no reason to put up with Android's inferiority anymore. I'm just waiting for them to finally break Termux. I'll buy an iPhone the very next day. Maybe postmarketOS will gain support for more devices but without WhatsApp support it's hopeless.
- Aardwolf 3y ago
  > Android's inferiority This must be personal preference. For me the #1 thing I do on my phone is browse the internet, and having choice of browser is a vital priority in this. Android allows you to choose browser, the other big maker only supports a single browser engine.
  - matheusmoreira 3y ago
    At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Google just got rid of Firefox for having uBlock Origin support.
    - jsnell 3y ago
      So, what does that actually mean? You think there's a 50% probability that Google waves a magic wand and "gets rid of Firefox" in let's say the next two years? 10%? 1%? 0.01%?
      - matheusmoreira 3y ago
        It means I wouldn't be surprised if they deleted Firefox from the app store. No idea about any percentages.
    - realusername 3y ago
      I highly doubt it, Firefox on mobile is a rounding error at best and I can't imagine the legal antitrust implications of doing that. It serves more as "there's competition you see" for google than anything else.
    - spondylosaurus 3y ago
      Unless they get rid of Android sideloading entirely it'd be extremely hard to do so.
      - matheusmoreira 3y ago
        I wouldn't put that past them either. All they need to do to kill sideloading is make devices with sideloaded apps fail attestation. People's bank apps will suddenly stop working and they'll be forced to bring the device back into an "untampered" state.
  - crossroadsguy 3y ago
    Agree with this point of yours whole heartedly. But I just can't wrap my head around Google tracking every single thing I do on my phone, even the things I don't do explicitly and there is no fathomable way to stop that unless I start everything from scratch. From the bricks, to sand, to water, and cement to setup a phone using some ROM that might or might not support the Android phone model I bought and if it did then even a patch might upend everything I had setup (including but not limited to bricking my phone for good) and then do that all over again. Not to mention that if I used that ROM a lot of essential apps might just don't even work to begin with or I might not even be able to install them, forget working. A browser is important but a kinda small, part of overall phone usage. At least for me.
- alwayslikethis 3y ago
  Not defending goolag, but you can still install non authorized apps on your Android, root your device, and install a custom ROM. Hard to do with an iPhone'
  - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
    The number of Android phone models where one can unlock the bootloader and install a custom ROM is fairly small. And among those models, there are plenty where no up-to-date custom ROM is available any more, so security vulnerabilities are piling up.
  - matheusmoreira 3y ago
    > you can still install non authorized apps on your Android, root your device, and install a custom ROM No, you can't. Your device will fail hardware attestation because you "tampered" with it. Then everyone starts refusing you service based on that alone. Your bank app stops working. Your streaming app stops working. Your games stop working. No doubt one day WhatsApp will stop working as well and at that point my phone might as well be a paperweight.
    - jaredhallen 3y ago
      I'm currently running lineageos with microg on a recent model phone, and google wallet is the only thing I've encountered that has given me any grief. Games, streaming apps, banking apps all work just fine. No hoops to jump through or anything.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

criddell 3y ago

I don't think there are very many people who fit that profile. Most iPhone user are pretty happy with the device. If there were a lot of people like that, I think the Microsoft Phone would still be around.

matheusmoreira 3y ago

Yeah. Google wiped out all the freedom we used to enjoy with hardware remote attestation. Now there's no reason to put up with Android's inferiority anymore. I'm just waiting for them to finally break Termux. I'll buy an iPhone the very next day. Maybe postmarketOS will gain support for more devices but without WhatsApp support it's hopeless.

Aardwolf 3y ago
> Android's inferiority This must be personal preference. For me the #1 thing I do on my phone is browse the internet, and having choice of browser is a vital priority in this. Android allows you to choose browser, the other big maker only supports a single browser engine.
- matheusmoreira 3y ago
  At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Google just got rid of Firefox for having uBlock Origin support.
  - jsnell 3y ago
    So, what does that actually mean? You think there's a 50% probability that Google waves a magic wand and "gets rid of Firefox" in let's say the next two years? 10%? 1%? 0.01%?
    - matheusmoreira 3y ago
      It means I wouldn't be surprised if they deleted Firefox from the app store. No idea about any percentages.
  - realusername 3y ago
    I highly doubt it, Firefox on mobile is a rounding error at best and I can't imagine the legal antitrust implications of doing that. It serves more as "there's competition you see" for google than anything else.
  - spondylosaurus 3y ago
    Unless they get rid of Android sideloading entirely it'd be extremely hard to do so.
    - matheusmoreira 3y ago
      I wouldn't put that past them either. All they need to do to kill sideloading is make devices with sideloaded apps fail attestation. People's bank apps will suddenly stop working and they'll be forced to bring the device back into an "untampered" state.
- crossroadsguy 3y ago
  Agree with this point of yours whole heartedly. But I just can't wrap my head around Google tracking every single thing I do on my phone, even the things I don't do explicitly and there is no fathomable way to stop that unless I start everything from scratch. From the bricks, to sand, to water, and cement to setup a phone using some ROM that might or might not support the Android phone model I bought and if it did then even a patch might upend everything I had setup (including but not limited to bricking my phone for good) and then do that all over again. Not to mention that if I used that ROM a lot of essential apps might just don't even work to begin with or I might not even be able to install them, forget working. A browser is important but a kinda small, part of overall phone usage. At least for me.
alwayslikethis 3y ago
Not defending goolag, but you can still install non authorized apps on your Android, root your device, and install a custom ROM. Hard to do with an iPhone'
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  The number of Android phone models where one can unlock the bootloader and install a custom ROM is fairly small. And among those models, there are plenty where no up-to-date custom ROM is available any more, so security vulnerabilities are piling up.
- matheusmoreira 3y ago
  > you can still install non authorized apps on your Android, root your device, and install a custom ROM No, you can't. Your device will fail hardware attestation because you "tampered" with it. Then everyone starts refusing you service based on that alone. Your bank app stops working. Your streaming app stops working. Your games stop working. No doubt one day WhatsApp will stop working as well and at that point my phone might as well be a paperweight.
  - jaredhallen 3y ago
    I'm currently running lineageos with microg on a recent model phone, and google wallet is the only thing I've encountered that has given me any grief. Games, streaming apps, banking apps all work just fine. No hoops to jump through or anything.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]