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_(President of VideoLAN here)_ The remark here is that AppStores have so much power that they are forcing limiting rules, and few people complain, because they
by jbk 2y ago
_(President of VideoLAN here)_
The remark here is that AppStores have so much power that they are forcing limiting rules, and few people complain, because they have no choices.
On Android, we can either give Google our private (!) key or not support existing Android versions, and there is (as usual for Google) no one to discuss this with.
On Windows, they changed soo many times the backend of their store, that even with support from the top of the hierarchy, we cannot even update our desktop apps (change a URL, not even a binary…)
Apple, so far, is less annoying, but to support old versions (iOS9 or 10) is an always on battle.
Apple AppStores does not allow GPL, Microsoft does not allow GPLv3 and Unity does not even allow LGPL…
It’s very frustrating and time consuming, but because we don’t make money out of those, and we are on more platforms than anyone, we can complain publically…
- heyoni 2y agoThere was wording in googles latest terms of service that seemed to imply that there would be recourse for certain violations and they wouldn’t jump straight to closing accounts and ignoring users’ pleas…I wonder if that’s a cultural shift that might extend to developer accounts and their android app store. If not today, hopefully soon.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoThank you for a wonderful product and for drawing attention to this issue. Given all the anticompetitive changes from Microsoft recently, I am worried desktops are only going to get worse and become fully like mobile devices soon. I think current antitrust legislation isn’t enough. We need different laws with easier enforcement. And instead of wasting time with laws and legal battles, we just need trillion dollar companies to be heavily taxed and use that money to fund competition.
- Const-me 2y agoOn Android, I think you can ignore the app store. I have never agreed to the ToS so none of the google’s services work on my phone, and I never used google account on the device. The play store is unavailable, yet I can install programs packaged into APK format. BTW, I use VLC-Android-3.5.4-arm64-v8a.apk to listen to internet radios I’ve subscribed. Very few players support M3U files with streaming URLs inside which include API key to authenticate. VLC does.
- kadoban 2y agoYou as a user can do that, but as a developer that's not where basically any of the users are. Alternative app stores exist as well, eg F-Droid, but that also misses the vast majority of users.
- siilats 2y agoJust mess with them and release VLCNew on android alongside the other vlc that stays for the TV