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GKI is short for Generic Kernel Images. Android kernels have always been heavily forked compared to mainline, this is not a new feature of GKI's. And if anyth

GKI is short for Generic Kernel Images. Android kernels have always been heavily forked compared to mainline, this is not a new feature of GKI's. And if anything, the distance is shrinking over time, not getting larger. It's not Google's fault that manufacturers' BSP's tend to rely on proprietary blobs, that's always been common throughout the embedded ecosystem. > If I can run a Debian phone & have all the fancy bits and bobs work, I won't feel so bad about GKI. You can try Droidian, it's a Mobian fork configured to run as a GSI. You'll be running proprietary kernel modules and relying on Android's low-level layers (which is a somewhat unstable arrangement, since we don't know how these may change in future devices) but at least the system level and UX will be a plain Linux userspace.

mschuster91 3y ago
> It's not Google's fault that manufacturers' BSP's tend to rely on proprietary blobs, that's always been common throughout the embedded ecosystem. If there is one entity that could have changed this years ago, it was Google, especially after Microsoft ditched Windows Phone. Look, I'm no friend of big corporations strong-arming their will around, but in this case it might have been good for once. Instead, you get a hellscape of Samsung messing around deep in Android Core (as everyone who wants to develop a long-running background app is likely to hit), and rooting being an extremely painful process that will brick about half the apps on your phone.
jauntywundrkind 3y ago
Good reply, thanks. I agree, the distance between Android and mainline has been shrinking and that's wonderful to see. Agreed again, no one has been upstreaming a good amount of their work; that's the state of the world. I'm not totally willing to absolve Google of all fault/responsibility here, but I understand-ish. I'm still not sure though that GKI doesn't let us backslide, doesn't let folks do even more closed, doesn't reverse some of our gains. As for Droidian & the ilk; I'm happy these exist. At the risk of once more going over the top though: I feel very differently about running my own Linux userland hoisted far atop a tower of controlled, locked-down platform I don't have access to, than I do having actual access to devices. It's wild how not our own our devices are. Maybe I can run a userland, but if I cant coordinate bluetooth devices and audio and display outputs myself, it's not really a good userland. And if Google SafetyNet is underfoot controlling my most personal machine forever, well, that's a sad shitty anti-user feature the future is being consigned to.

mschuster91 3y ago

> It's not Google's fault that manufacturers' BSP's tend to rely on proprietary blobs, that's always been common throughout the embedded ecosystem. If there is one entity that could have changed this years ago, it was Google, especially after Microsoft ditched Windows Phone. Look, I'm no friend of big corporations strong-arming their will around, but in this case it might have been good for once. Instead, you get a hellscape of Samsung messing around deep in Android Core (as everyone who wants to develop a long-running background app is likely to hit), and rooting being an extremely painful process that will brick about half the apps on your phone.

jauntywundrkind 3y ago

Good reply, thanks. I agree, the distance between Android and mainline has been shrinking and that's wonderful to see. Agreed again, no one has been upstreaming a good amount of their work; that's the state of the world. I'm not totally willing to absolve Google of all fault/responsibility here, but I understand-ish. I'm still not sure though that GKI doesn't let us backslide, doesn't let folks do even more closed, doesn't reverse some of our gains. As for Droidian & the ilk; I'm happy these exist. At the risk of once more going over the top though: I feel very differently about running my own Linux userland hoisted far atop a tower of controlled, locked-down platform I don't have access to, than I do having actual access to devices. It's wild how not our own our devices are. Maybe I can run a userland, but if I cant coordinate bluetooth devices and audio and display outputs myself, it's not really a good userland. And if Google SafetyNet is underfoot controlling my most personal machine forever, well, that's a sad shitty anti-user feature the future is being consigned to.