7 ms·

It continues to baffle me that Google gets harassed by the courts for being a better actor in almost every area it participates. Open source Android vs. closed

by xnx 2y ago

It continues to baffle me that Google gets harassed by the courts for being a better actor in almost every area it participates. Open source Android vs. closed iOS Install apps from any source on Android vs. total restriction on iOS Switch default app for browser (and many other things!) vs. No choice but Safari tech on iOS Easy switch of search provider in Chrome vs. countless dark patterns pushing Edge and Bing on Windows

setsewerd 2y ago
Aren't those first two points being phased out? E..g. Google recently announced that it will be moving Android development entirely to its private internal branch, no more development sharing. They say they'll still be open source, but Google has been caught lying about a lot of things lately. (Sent from my Android.)
- rockemsockem 2y ago
  They said they're going to merge their private branch after their full releases, as opposed to merging many times on the way to a release. https://9to5google.com/2025/03/26/google-android-aosp-developement-private/#:~:text=Google%20will%20develop%20Android%20OS%20entirely%20behind%20closed%20doors%20starting%20next%20week&text=For%20years%20now%2C%20Android%20has,entirely%20in%20its%20internal%20branch. https://9to5google.com/2025/03/26/google-android-aosp-develo... > This does not mean that Google is making Android a closed-source platform, but rather that the open-source aspect will only be released when a new branch is released to AOSP with those changes, including when new full versions or maintenance releases are finished.
- gerash 2y ago
  This comment demonstrates many just read the rage bait headlines and don't really get much useful news these days.
disiplus 2y ago
i have a pixel phone, but google is not the good guy here. Like in this example, it basically bundles stuff in a way, so if you want for example the store, you have to take other stuff also and that other stuff has its own requirements.
- xnx 2y ago
  Right. So the courts seem to prefer not offering the user any choice in hardware or software like Apple.
- Zigurd 2y ago
  There are de-Googled phones based on AOSP, and not just in China. Google used to be more permissive with OEM "customization" and the result was lots of Bad Product Differentiation. Phone OEMs suck at software. Huawei has a phone OS not based on AOSP, but you can't easily get it in the US. Making a coherent OS product that doesn't get horribly mutated by OEM licensees is not easy. Vide Windows bloatware.
  - Spivak 2y ago
    The mistake Google is making with the courts is that you can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't have an open OS while simultaneously flexing your other business units to dictate how other people use it. Google flexing in this way, arguably for the benefit of the user, is nonetheless anticompetitive and the courts are reaming them for it.
cyberax 2y ago
At this point, an Android phone without Google Play Services is mostly useless. You can't use maps, you can't even use notifications!
- xnx 2y ago
  No one is forcing these other companies to make and sell phones. They don't even have the choice with iOS. I'm really struggling to see where the consumer harm is.
  - cyberax 2y ago
    So companies should just bow down to Google to produce phones? That's the definition of monopoly.
    - osti 2y ago
      As opposed to bow down to Apple and oh, still can't make an iOS phone?
      - cyberax 2y ago
        Apple also is a monopolist.
        scarface_74 2y ago
        So two companies in the same market are monopolists?
        guappa 2y ago
        You've never heard of "a cartel"?
        scarface_74 2y ago
        And thst is a different word and no evidence has been published to such a point.
kmeisthax 2y ago
They're being harassed for lying about being a better actor. Apple gets to be a controlling asshole because there's no legal requirement for tech companies to not be. Google tried to have their cake and eat it too. iOS is a package deal: you use our OS on our phones with our App Store and browser. Very straightforward and honest, even if we rightly hate the deal. This all relies on basic protections of IP law that the state is so far unwilling to roll back. Android is a confusopoly[0]. For every point you mentioned, Google has a hidden deal or catch that subverts the intention of the words in question and makes it as bad as iOS. Yes, Android is FOSS, but the app store everyone uses is proprietary; and Google's licensing terms for the proprietary store contravene the licenses on the FOSS portion. You specifically agree not to ship devices with "Android forks", even if you don't put the proprietary store on those specific devices. And what's actually released in AOSP shrinks every time a Google engineer puts a Google client in an app. Let us also not forget Android Honeycomb, which actually was not released to AOSP. There is no legal requirement for Google to ship source, and they've already tried out a fully-proprietary release of Android in the past. Yes, you could install non-Google-Play apps on Android, but updating them required you to manually approve every update. Third-party app stores were a nightmare to use until Epic sued about it and Google provided APIs to actually deliver updates in the same way that Google Play can. Yes, Google Play lets Mozilla ship Gecko. But Google is also paying phone manufacturers lots of money to make Chrome the default. Oh, and to not ship any third-party app stores. Combined with Google Play not letting you distribute other app stores through itself, it makes actually finding and using an app store a pain. And Chrome is specifically designed to make you use Google Search with the same dark patterns Edge uses. Please do not fool yourself into thinking that any actor in this industry is good. They all suck, and you should be happy when any of them get their noses bloodied. [0] A term coined by the writer of Dilbert, Hatsune Miku, for deliberately confusing marketing intended to make you sigh in frustration, open your wallet, and let the sales guy decide what product you buy.
- refulgentis 2y ago
  Worked on Android from 2016-2023. Vouch. (modulo Chrome aping Edge dark patterns) And it's not an accident, or just an unthinking corporation with big divisions accidentally working at opposites, or just something looks bad when someone writes it up from the outside.
pedalpete 2y ago
With Apple, they are the manufacturer of the phone and the software, so they get to decide what goes on the hardware. Google makes the OS, but not the hardware. Why should they be able to decide what another company puts on the hardware. This is exactly the same playbook Microsoft tried in the 90s, and it is going to court for the exact same reason. It's using your market power to prevent competition. We've decided that just because you are the maker of a piece of software does not mean you get to decide what runs on someone else's hardware.
- sahila 2y ago
  So are you proposing that Google shouldn't allow other companies to install Android? What would Samsung, Motorola switch to and do app developers have to create apps targeting all of the different mobile OSes? This seems like a far worst path than today, and to OP's point, though Google isn't perfect, they're doing better than their competitor in providing options. Pushing Google to only offer Android on their own phones is not a win for consumers.
  - pedalpete 2y ago
    That's not at all what I'm proposing. I'm proposing that Google can't decide what other hardware companies include in their devices just because they are including Android. I think it is fine for Google to say you have to include the Play store, or you have to include Chrome, but to say you can't include firefox, or you can't include instagram, etc. etc. That shouldn't be up to Google. This is what got Microsoft in anti-trust trouble in the 90s. They included Internet Explorer with the OS, and said that it had to be the default and only browser included by vendors. They weren't allowed to include competing browsers.
  - ForHackernews 2y ago
    > Pushing Google to only offer Android on their own phones is not a win for consumers. How can you possibly know that? Traditionally, competition + standards for interoperability has been a big win for consumers. In a world without Google-android, maybe Samsung & Huawei get together and put in the polish to make https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/ into a consumer-usable system? Maybe each fork LineageOS or KaiOS but collaborate on a standard apk format so developers can easily ship on different app stores?
indrora 2y ago
>Open source Android vs. closed iOS Google have slid back on this from day one. A pure-AOSP build of Android is borderline unusable, to the point that the dialer UI, various essential apps such as contacts and the like are now proprietary Google code, stripped out of AOSP. Additionally, AOSP has gone to a source-dump release pattern, rather than an open build. Last I knew, even basic things like the Camera and clock app had been made Google-Properietary. You have to go to a completely independent distribution like LineageOS, which has maintained a step by step fork of Android, in order to have a "google free" environment that is vaguely useful. However, the thing the courts have gotten very angry with is that in order to use the Android trademark, you have to get certification, which requires you to exclusively ship a series of Google applications (Chrome, Gmail, Youtube, the Google Photos app, etc) even if you have your own replacement (e.g. Samsung's browser, a native photo app, email client, etc.) and you Must ship with the Google account system up front. > Install apps from any source on Android vs. total restriction on iOS Going with the previous one: The apps you install then are going to require the Google services that may or may not have been shipped with your phone. Additionally, the hoops that an application must go through to get the same level privileges as a Google application -- even for things on the local phone -- are far and above what most people would be willing to go through: Since Google apps are installed on the system software end, they are given privileges that no other application could have. > Switch default app for browser (and many other things!) vs. No choice but Safari tech on iOS See previous: If you want to ship with Google's blessed market, you must ship with Chrome and it must be the default. The power of defaults is strong here.
- Zigurd 2y ago
  Camera apps on Android are very loosely coupled to the OS. They are intentionally left to OEMs to provide because that's the most visible aspect of hardware differentiation, and that differentiation probably depends on software support. On top of that, it would be hard to design an API for every possible camera hardware, apart from a high level API for apps to acquire an image.
  - serf 2y ago
    >On top of that, it would be hard to design an API for every possible camera hardware, apart from a high level API for apps to acquire an image. APIs themselves are hard to make, but why is a camera one especially so? The language is well understood, the math and science are well understood. There are only a few ways that cameras themselves work, and even few ways that cell phone cameras work. Why is it hard? In advance -- No, Sony/Panasonic/Toshiba/Apple/Whoever locking functions behind magic numbers and proprietary blobs and other 'un-Gentlemanly' things shouldn't count as difficulty in making a Camera API; that's just shit companies being shit to people, not an API problem.
gerash 2y ago
It seems the probability of being guilty in the current justice system is a function of how many persistent enemies you have and not how just or unjust your actions are.
kstrauser 2y ago
For the record, none of those are objectively "better". You and I may think they're better. Lots, lots, as in billions of people, couldn't care less: > Open source Android vs. closed iOS Almost no one outside specific tech circles cares, and even if they understood what it meant, still wouldn't care. > Install apps from any source on Android vs. total restriction on iOS That's one of the primary reasons I suggest that my relatives buy iPhones. I have older family who would absolutely install an APK from hackerz.ru if they got a phishing email claiming they won the Facebook Lottery and that's how they claim the prize. For that matter, I'm glad my bank has to publish their app through the App Store, because otherwise they'd almost certainly be hosting it on sketchysounding.bankservices.biz if no one made them. The walled garden is an enormous advantage for a huge chunk of the world. I understand why it's a PITA for others. I'd love to install unsanctioned software from GitHub on my iPhone, but I'll happily accept that tradeoff in exchange for my uncle not being able to install "Real Actual Gmail.apk" from god knows where. > Switch default app for browser (and many other things!) vs. No choice but Safari tech on iOS I might agree with that, although part of me is glad that there's at least one major platform that Chrome hasn't taken over. > Easy switch of search provider in Chrome vs. countless dark patterns pushing Edge and Bing on Windows Five years ago, I'd have agreed. Today Chrome seems like the King of Dark Patterns because it can get away with it. It's the one single app on my Mac that makes me specially configure cmd-Q to quit it. Manifest v3. Web Integrity API. Etc., etc., etc. Google does this because they can. They haven't been the better actor in ages.
- NikolaNovak 2y ago
  I would agree with that in principle if it were remotely true, but on my iPhone, when I searched for chatgpt or openai when they came out, I got half a dozen fake apps before the real one. And that's been the case for so many search terms for popular apps or areas. There are 1.8 million apps on iOS app store! How do they get this aura and image of safety and reliability? Or, how do I find that safe walled garden? :)
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    And those fake apps are still subject to the sandbox. But yes, the App Store is a shit show
wordofx 2y ago
Android is hardly open source if it’s developed behind closed doors and final version released. It’s pretending.
- bitpush 2y ago
  Are you confused between open source and open development? Isn't the source fully open? Edit: If I made a movie, and made the files freely available after I make it and let you do whatever you want with it .. would you insist that it isn't "open" because you didn't see me argue with my editor or the 100 times I iterates on the end scene or whether your idea for chase sequence was not incorporated?
  - wordofx 2y ago
    No they changed their development process to do it behind closed doors and release the code after final release.
    - bitpush 2y ago
      Again, I ask isn't that still open source?
      - jsiepkes 2y ago
        You can't even install the resulting binaries of an opensource Android build on a phone because of gaps. And even if you could (or fill in the gaps) Google poisoned the ecosystem by ensuring almost all Android apps require Google Play services. Which aren't open source and you realistically need for all Android apps. So no, Google made sure there is no open source Android. There are just some (incomplete) source dumps.
        bitpush 2y ago
        Gapps were ever open source. Android, the operating system, is what's open source. Are you saying because Google Maps isn't open source, the operating system is useless?
keeda 2y ago
> Open source Android vs. closed iOS https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on... This article lays out in painstaking detail in one place most of the criticisms about Android you'll find in this comment thread. And this was published in 2018! That Google still maintains "a better actor" aura despite all that we know now is the greatest trick they ever pulled.
- PunchTornado 2y ago
  the comment doesn't say that is good, it says that it is better than ios. do you think android is more closed than ios?
  - hedora 2y ago
    Android is more definitely more user hostile. They’re both closed in practice. Heck, it wouldn’t surprise me if jailbreaking iOS breaks less stuff than moving to a custom android rom.
- ascagnel_ 2y ago
  It's open-source in the same way TiVo was "open-source" back in the day: yeah, you get the code, but you can't do anything with it in a practical sense. Also, that article was published in 2013 and only received light updates in 2018 -- and its core arguments haven't really aged even with the additional five years.
p0w3n3d 2y ago
Please add Dr.Evil's air quotes around open in "open source Android"
TiredOfLife 2y ago
Android is not open source and has not been for years. There is AOSP that contains small part of Android source. But the product that Google sells to OEMs is not open source.
ForHackernews 2y ago
Yes, please break up Apple, too! Who do we have to call to start the antitrust suit?
nashashmi 2y ago
No one could use the open source OS because the closed source play store was off limits unless you complied with google’s terms. It is like someone saying here is candy for you for free! But you can’t unwrap it unless you buy my dental insurance.
CodesInChaos 2y ago
The EU fined Apple a couple of days ago, because their app store restrictions violate the Digital Market Act (DMA). Similarly the EU forced Apple to allow alternative browser engines and to add a default browser selector.
oofManBang 2y ago
> It continues to baffle me that Google gets harassed by the courts for being a better actor in almost every area it participates. Doesn't mean much in a duopoly. Anyway, there's no real alternative to using google services which basically ruins the phone.
9cb14c1ec0 2y ago
Android is source partially open, not anywhere close to true open source.
_ea1k 2y ago
I've learned that to a lot of people, perfect is always the ideal enemy of good.
sitkack 2y ago
> Google gets harassed by the courts for being a better actor Please just stop

by xnx 2y ago

setsewerd 2y ago

Aren't those first two points being phased out? E..g. Google recently announced that it will be moving Android development entirely to its private internal branch, no more development sharing. They say they'll still be open source, but Google has been caught lying about a lot of things lately. (Sent from my Android.)

rockemsockem 2y ago
They said they're going to merge their private branch after their full releases, as opposed to merging many times on the way to a release. https://9to5google.com/2025/03/26/google-android-aosp-developement-private/#:~:text=Google%20will%20develop%20Android%20OS%20entirely%20behind%20closed%20doors%20starting%20next%20week&text=For%20years%20now%2C%20Android%20has,entirely%20in%20its%20internal%20branch. https://9to5google.com/2025/03/26/google-android-aosp-develo... > This does not mean that Google is making Android a closed-source platform, but rather that the open-source aspect will only be released when a new branch is released to AOSP with those changes, including when new full versions or maintenance releases are finished.
gerash 2y ago
This comment demonstrates many just read the rage bait headlines and don't really get much useful news these days.

disiplus 2y ago

i have a pixel phone, but google is not the good guy here. Like in this example, it basically bundles stuff in a way, so if you want for example the store, you have to take other stuff also and that other stuff has its own requirements.

xnx 2y ago
Right. So the courts seem to prefer not offering the user any choice in hardware or software like Apple.
Zigurd 2y ago
There are de-Googled phones based on AOSP, and not just in China. Google used to be more permissive with OEM "customization" and the result was lots of Bad Product Differentiation. Phone OEMs suck at software. Huawei has a phone OS not based on AOSP, but you can't easily get it in the US. Making a coherent OS product that doesn't get horribly mutated by OEM licensees is not easy. Vide Windows bloatware.
- Spivak 2y ago
  The mistake Google is making with the courts is that you can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't have an open OS while simultaneously flexing your other business units to dictate how other people use it. Google flexing in this way, arguably for the benefit of the user, is nonetheless anticompetitive and the courts are reaming them for it.

cyberax 2y ago

At this point, an Android phone without Google Play Services is mostly useless. You can't use maps, you can't even use notifications!

xnx 2y ago
No one is forcing these other companies to make and sell phones. They don't even have the choice with iOS. I'm really struggling to see where the consumer harm is.
- cyberax 2y ago
  So companies should just bow down to Google to produce phones? That's the definition of monopoly.
  - osti 2y ago
    As opposed to bow down to Apple and oh, still can't make an iOS phone?
    - cyberax 2y ago
      Apple also is a monopolist.
      - scarface_74 2y ago
        So two companies in the same market are monopolists?
        guappa 2y ago
        You've never heard of "a cartel"?
        scarface_74 2y ago
        And thst is a different word and no evidence has been published to such a point.

kmeisthax 2y ago

They're being harassed for lying about being a better actor. Apple gets to be a controlling asshole because there's no legal requirement for tech companies to not be. Google tried to have their cake and eat it too. iOS is a package deal: you use our OS on our phones with our App Store and browser. Very straightforward and honest, even if we rightly hate the deal. This all relies on basic protections of IP law that the state is so far unwilling to roll back. Android is a confusopoly[0]. For every point you mentioned, Google has a hidden deal or catch that subverts the intention of the words in question and makes it as bad as iOS. Yes, Android is FOSS, but the app store everyone uses is proprietary; and Google's licensing terms for the proprietary store contravene the licenses on the FOSS portion. You specifically agree not to ship devices with "Android forks", even if you don't put the proprietary store on those specific devices. And what's actually released in AOSP shrinks every time a Google engineer puts a Google client in an app. Let us also not forget Android Honeycomb, which actually was not released to AOSP. There is no legal requirement for Google to ship source, and they've already tried out a fully-proprietary release of Android in the past. Yes, you could install non-Google-Play apps on Android, but updating them required you to manually approve every update. Third-party app stores were a nightmare to use until Epic sued about it and Google provided APIs to actually deliver updates in the same way that Google Play can. Yes, Google Play lets Mozilla ship Gecko. But Google is also paying phone manufacturers lots of money to make Chrome the default. Oh, and to not ship any third-party app stores. Combined with Google Play not letting you distribute other app stores through itself, it makes actually finding and using an app store a pain. And Chrome is specifically designed to make you use Google Search with the same dark patterns Edge uses. Please do not fool yourself into thinking that any actor in this industry is good. They all suck, and you should be happy when any of them get their noses bloodied. [0] A term coined by the writer of Dilbert, Hatsune Miku, for deliberately confusing marketing intended to make you sigh in frustration, open your wallet, and let the sales guy decide what product you buy.

refulgentis 2y ago
Worked on Android from 2016-2023. Vouch. (modulo Chrome aping Edge dark patterns) And it's not an accident, or just an unthinking corporation with big divisions accidentally working at opposites, or just something looks bad when someone writes it up from the outside.

pedalpete 2y ago

With Apple, they are the manufacturer of the phone and the software, so they get to decide what goes on the hardware. Google makes the OS, but not the hardware. Why should they be able to decide what another company puts on the hardware. This is exactly the same playbook Microsoft tried in the 90s, and it is going to court for the exact same reason. It's using your market power to prevent competition. We've decided that just because you are the maker of a piece of software does not mean you get to decide what runs on someone else's hardware.

sahila 2y ago
So are you proposing that Google shouldn't allow other companies to install Android? What would Samsung, Motorola switch to and do app developers have to create apps targeting all of the different mobile OSes? This seems like a far worst path than today, and to OP's point, though Google isn't perfect, they're doing better than their competitor in providing options. Pushing Google to only offer Android on their own phones is not a win for consumers.
- pedalpete 2y ago
  That's not at all what I'm proposing. I'm proposing that Google can't decide what other hardware companies include in their devices just because they are including Android. I think it is fine for Google to say you have to include the Play store, or you have to include Chrome, but to say you can't include firefox, or you can't include instagram, etc. etc. That shouldn't be up to Google. This is what got Microsoft in anti-trust trouble in the 90s. They included Internet Explorer with the OS, and said that it had to be the default and only browser included by vendors. They weren't allowed to include competing browsers.
- ForHackernews 2y ago
  > Pushing Google to only offer Android on their own phones is not a win for consumers. How can you possibly know that? Traditionally, competition + standards for interoperability has been a big win for consumers. In a world without Google-android, maybe Samsung & Huawei get together and put in the polish to make https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/ into a consumer-usable system? Maybe each fork LineageOS or KaiOS but collaborate on a standard apk format so developers can easily ship on different app stores?

indrora 2y ago

>Open source Android vs. closed iOS Google have slid back on this from day one. A pure-AOSP build of Android is borderline unusable, to the point that the dialer UI, various essential apps such as contacts and the like are now proprietary Google code, stripped out of AOSP. Additionally, AOSP has gone to a source-dump release pattern, rather than an open build. Last I knew, even basic things like the Camera and clock app had been made Google-Properietary. You have to go to a completely independent distribution like LineageOS, which has maintained a step by step fork of Android, in order to have a "google free" environment that is vaguely useful. However, the thing the courts have gotten very angry with is that in order to use the Android trademark, you have to get certification, which requires you to exclusively ship a series of Google applications (Chrome, Gmail, Youtube, the Google Photos app, etc) even if you have your own replacement (e.g. Samsung's browser, a native photo app, email client, etc.) and you Must ship with the Google account system up front. > Install apps from any source on Android vs. total restriction on iOS Going with the previous one: The apps you install then are going to require the Google services that may or may not have been shipped with your phone. Additionally, the hoops that an application must go through to get the same level privileges as a Google application -- even for things on the local phone -- are far and above what most people would be willing to go through: Since Google apps are installed on the system software end, they are given privileges that no other application could have. > Switch default app for browser (and many other things!) vs. No choice but Safari tech on iOS See previous: If you want to ship with Google's blessed market, you must ship with Chrome and it must be the default. The power of defaults is strong here.

Zigurd 2y ago
Camera apps on Android are very loosely coupled to the OS. They are intentionally left to OEMs to provide because that's the most visible aspect of hardware differentiation, and that differentiation probably depends on software support. On top of that, it would be hard to design an API for every possible camera hardware, apart from a high level API for apps to acquire an image.
- serf 2y ago
  >On top of that, it would be hard to design an API for every possible camera hardware, apart from a high level API for apps to acquire an image. APIs themselves are hard to make, but why is a camera one especially so? The language is well understood, the math and science are well understood. There are only a few ways that cameras themselves work, and even few ways that cell phone cameras work. Why is it hard? In advance -- No, Sony/Panasonic/Toshiba/Apple/Whoever locking functions behind magic numbers and proprietary blobs and other 'un-Gentlemanly' things shouldn't count as difficulty in making a Camera API; that's just shit companies being shit to people, not an API problem.

gerash 2y ago

It seems the probability of being guilty in the current justice system is a function of how many persistent enemies you have and not how just or unjust your actions are.

kstrauser 2y ago

For the record, none of those are objectively "better". You and I may think they're better. Lots, lots, as in billions of people, couldn't care less: > Open source Android vs. closed iOS Almost no one outside specific tech circles cares, and even if they understood what it meant, still wouldn't care. > Install apps from any source on Android vs. total restriction on iOS That's one of the primary reasons I suggest that my relatives buy iPhones. I have older family who would absolutely install an APK from hackerz.ru if they got a phishing email claiming they won the Facebook Lottery and that's how they claim the prize. For that matter, I'm glad my bank has to publish their app through the App Store, because otherwise they'd almost certainly be hosting it on sketchysounding.bankservices.biz if no one made them. The walled garden is an enormous advantage for a huge chunk of the world. I understand why it's a PITA for others. I'd love to install unsanctioned software from GitHub on my iPhone, but I'll happily accept that tradeoff in exchange for my uncle not being able to install "Real Actual Gmail.apk" from god knows where. > Switch default app for browser (and many other things!) vs. No choice but Safari tech on iOS I might agree with that, although part of me is glad that there's at least one major platform that Chrome hasn't taken over. > Easy switch of search provider in Chrome vs. countless dark patterns pushing Edge and Bing on Windows Five years ago, I'd have agreed. Today Chrome seems like the King of Dark Patterns because it can get away with it. It's the one single app on my Mac that makes me specially configure cmd-Q to quit it. Manifest v3. Web Integrity API. Etc., etc., etc. Google does this because they can. They haven't been the better actor in ages.

NikolaNovak 2y ago
I would agree with that in principle if it were remotely true, but on my iPhone, when I searched for chatgpt or openai when they came out, I got half a dozen fake apps before the real one. And that's been the case for so many search terms for popular apps or areas. There are 1.8 million apps on iOS app store! How do they get this aura and image of safety and reliability? Or, how do I find that safe walled garden? :)
- scarface_74 2y ago
  And those fake apps are still subject to the sandbox. But yes, the App Store is a shit show

wordofx 2y ago

Android is hardly open source if it’s developed behind closed doors and final version released. It’s pretending.

bitpush 2y ago
Are you confused between open source and open development? Isn't the source fully open? Edit: If I made a movie, and made the files freely available after I make it and let you do whatever you want with it .. would you insist that it isn't "open" because you didn't see me argue with my editor or the 100 times I iterates on the end scene or whether your idea for chase sequence was not incorporated?
- wordofx 2y ago
  No they changed their development process to do it behind closed doors and release the code after final release.
  - bitpush 2y ago
    Again, I ask isn't that still open source?
    - jsiepkes 2y ago
      You can't even install the resulting binaries of an opensource Android build on a phone because of gaps. And even if you could (or fill in the gaps) Google poisoned the ecosystem by ensuring almost all Android apps require Google Play services. Which aren't open source and you realistically need for all Android apps. So no, Google made sure there is no open source Android. There are just some (incomplete) source dumps.
      - bitpush 2y ago
        Gapps were ever open source. Android, the operating system, is what's open source. Are you saying because Google Maps isn't open source, the operating system is useless?

keeda 2y ago

> Open source Android vs. closed iOS https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on... This article lays out in painstaking detail in one place most of the criticisms about Android you'll find in this comment thread. And this was published in 2018! That Google still maintains "a better actor" aura despite all that we know now is the greatest trick they ever pulled.

PunchTornado 2y ago
the comment doesn't say that is good, it says that it is better than ios. do you think android is more closed than ios?
- hedora 2y ago
  Android is more definitely more user hostile. They’re both closed in practice. Heck, it wouldn’t surprise me if jailbreaking iOS breaks less stuff than moving to a custom android rom.
ascagnel_ 2y ago
It's open-source in the same way TiVo was "open-source" back in the day: yeah, you get the code, but you can't do anything with it in a practical sense. Also, that article was published in 2013 and only received light updates in 2018 -- and its core arguments haven't really aged even with the additional five years.

p0w3n3d 2y ago

Please add Dr.Evil's air quotes around open in "open source Android"

TiredOfLife 2y ago

Android is not open source and has not been for years. There is AOSP that contains small part of Android source. But the product that Google sells to OEMs is not open source.

ForHackernews 2y ago

Yes, please break up Apple, too! Who do we have to call to start the antitrust suit?

nashashmi 2y ago

No one could use the open source OS because the closed source play store was off limits unless you complied with google’s terms. It is like someone saying here is candy for you for free! But you can’t unwrap it unless you buy my dental insurance.

CodesInChaos 2y ago

The EU fined Apple a couple of days ago, because their app store restrictions violate the Digital Market Act (DMA). Similarly the EU forced Apple to allow alternative browser engines and to add a default browser selector.

oofManBang 2y ago

> It continues to baffle me that Google gets harassed by the courts for being a better actor in almost every area it participates. Doesn't mean much in a duopoly. Anyway, there's no real alternative to using google services which basically ruins the phone.

9cb14c1ec0 2y ago

Android is source partially open, not anywhere close to true open source.

_ea1k 2y ago

I've learned that to a lot of people, perfect is always the ideal enemy of good.

sitkack 2y ago

> Google gets harassed by the courts for being a better actor Please just stop