4 ms·

We ("you") have no power to keep android open. Unfortunately it is in the hands of a company that is building it for profit, in a way or the other. It's been o

We ("you") have no power to keep android open. Unfortunately it is in the hands of a company that is building it for profit, in a way or the other. It's been our choice to drink this glass of wishful thinking while giving that company a solid dominant position in the market. We ("you") can only make choices that will overturn that trend. Fully opensource hardware with fully opensource software? Maybe, but also this is wishful thinking.

colordrops 8mo ago
If they close things up with no alternative, the free open source software will likely start to catch up. it will take a few years though. This could be a blessing in disguise.
- encom 8mo ago
  Somehow, Stallman returned.
- RussianCow 8mo ago
  There is just no reasonable way that the open source community can compete with a $3.8T company. And before you say something along the lines of, "But they don't need to compete, they just need to be good enough", that still requires business to put their apps on some open source app store and make them compatible with the open source OS, and there is close to zero incentive for them to do so.
  - mistercheph 8mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux MSFT Market cap: 2.951T AAPL Market cap: 3.883T
    - RussianCow 8mo ago
      You've made my point. How many people use Linux as their primary desktop or mobile OS? And that's arguably the world's largest open source project.
      - colordrops 8mo ago
        Enough. Linux has finally caught on. I literally never use windows or mac and life has been fine.
      - guerrilla 8mo ago
        > their primary desktop You're moving the goal post. Linix competed with the biggest software companies in the world in the server world and won. We can do it again in another market.
        RussianCow 8mo ago
        I'm not moving the goal post. We're talking about a consumer OS (Android). Servers are a completely different ball game with an entirely separate set of tradeoffs. On average, it's much easier for a company to adopt new, unknown tech than it is for laypeople who are not tech savvy.
        mistercheph 8mo ago
        You said, "There is just no reasonable way that the open source community can compete with a $3.8T company." But, Linux has completely decimated Microsoft's presence in the server and embedded markets. Look at what Microsoft was doing in the mid-2000's, they had a healthy server OS business, and they were spending billions trying to get Windows in embedded stuff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Automotive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Automotive)and it was a total failure because they could not compete with open source software, in the end, it wasn't even close. These are markets far bigger than the consumer desktop licensing market where Microsoft can't even make a dent into Linux's dominance, this represents >$100B in annual lost revenue for microsoft. So yes, Linux already won, and it won big time, despite going up against the MSFT behemoth as you say. Global Linux desktop usage is at about ~5% and growing while Windows is bleeding out and dying. And Microsoft doesn't care, go read their earnings reports to see why, their consumer desktop business does not matter except for it's ability to generate leads and demand for their actual core products. And geopolitical levers are also in Linux's favor, e.g. EU's desires for tech independence: the moves European governments were already making away from global tech products while funding domestic (often open source) alternatives are going to continue to accelerate: - https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101135795 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101135795 - https://nlnet.nl/project/index.html https://nlnet.nl/project/index.html - https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/denmarks-strategic-leap-replacing-microsoft-office-365-libreoffice-digital-independence https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/denmarks-strategic-leap... - https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/15/schleswig_holstein_open_source/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/15/schleswig_holstein_op... And to answer your original question again, yes, open source software can compete, and it often can compete with a comical fraction of the resources of its closed source competitor. It's not a surprise: The open source model works extremely well and is the most efficient way to build software and technology that we know of; human beings have been sharing technology in this way for the duration of recorded history.
sigmoid10 8mo ago
It's also heavily influenced by businesses. Most employers will happily hand you an Apple or Android phone for work, but I don't think there is a single company out there that would dare to hand normal people an Ubuntu Touch based phone.
phoronixrly 8mo ago
We (people who live in a country/confederacy with working antitrust laws) have power to keep large companies from anticompetitive practices such as this one.
- pessimizer 8mo ago
  What country does this "we" that you speak of live in? In the US there hasn't been any antitrust enforcement for 30 years (really more like 50 years, but I'm being generous), Obama appointed a crop of judges that don't even believe in antitrust as a concept, and Congress doesn't do anything that hasn't been paid for by a donor any more. I haven't heard about any other countries doing any better, either. Their systems were even cheaper to subvert.
fsflover 8mo ago
> Fully opensource hardware with fully opensource software? Maybe, but also this is wishful thinking. My smartphone runs an FSF-endorsed OS, PureOS. This is reality. It's not open hardware, but it's a long way from Android in the right direction. You can also get a Precursor, which is open hardware.
- direwolf20 8mo ago
  A Precursor costs about 1000$ and only does cryptography, not Flappy Bird. Most of these supposedly open alternatives make no economic sense.
  - notorandit 8mo ago
    It does instead, imho. Commercial phone cost also includes the data value it steals continuously.

colordrops 8mo ago

If they close things up with no alternative, the free open source software will likely start to catch up. it will take a few years though. This could be a blessing in disguise.

encom 8mo ago
Somehow, Stallman returned.
RussianCow 8mo ago
There is just no reasonable way that the open source community can compete with a $3.8T company. And before you say something along the lines of, "But they don't need to compete, they just need to be good enough", that still requires business to put their apps on some open source app store and make them compatible with the open source OS, and there is close to zero incentive for them to do so.
- mistercheph 8mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux MSFT Market cap: 2.951T AAPL Market cap: 3.883T
  - RussianCow 8mo ago
    You've made my point. How many people use Linux as their primary desktop or mobile OS? And that's arguably the world's largest open source project.
    - colordrops 8mo ago
      Enough. Linux has finally caught on. I literally never use windows or mac and life has been fine.
    - guerrilla 8mo ago
      > their primary desktop You're moving the goal post. Linix competed with the biggest software companies in the world in the server world and won. We can do it again in another market.
      - RussianCow 8mo ago
        I'm not moving the goal post. We're talking about a consumer OS (Android). Servers are a completely different ball game with an entirely separate set of tradeoffs. On average, it's much easier for a company to adopt new, unknown tech than it is for laypeople who are not tech savvy.
        mistercheph 8mo ago
        You said, "There is just no reasonable way that the open source community can compete with a $3.8T company." But, Linux has completely decimated Microsoft's presence in the server and embedded markets. Look at what Microsoft was doing in the mid-2000's, they had a healthy server OS business, and they were spending billions trying to get Windows in embedded stuff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Automotive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Automotive)and it was a total failure because they could not compete with open source software, in the end, it wasn't even close. These are markets far bigger than the consumer desktop licensing market where Microsoft can't even make a dent into Linux's dominance, this represents >$100B in annual lost revenue for microsoft. So yes, Linux already won, and it won big time, despite going up against the MSFT behemoth as you say. Global Linux desktop usage is at about ~5% and growing while Windows is bleeding out and dying. And Microsoft doesn't care, go read their earnings reports to see why, their consumer desktop business does not matter except for it's ability to generate leads and demand for their actual core products. And geopolitical levers are also in Linux's favor, e.g. EU's desires for tech independence: the moves European governments were already making away from global tech products while funding domestic (often open source) alternatives are going to continue to accelerate: - https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101135795 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101135795 - https://nlnet.nl/project/index.html https://nlnet.nl/project/index.html - https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/denmarks-strategic-leap-replacing-microsoft-office-365-libreoffice-digital-independence https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/denmarks-strategic-leap... - https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/15/schleswig_holstein_open_source/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/15/schleswig_holstein_op... And to answer your original question again, yes, open source software can compete, and it often can compete with a comical fraction of the resources of its closed source competitor. It's not a surprise: The open source model works extremely well and is the most efficient way to build software and technology that we know of; human beings have been sharing technology in this way for the duration of recorded history.

sigmoid10 8mo ago

It's also heavily influenced by businesses. Most employers will happily hand you an Apple or Android phone for work, but I don't think there is a single company out there that would dare to hand normal people an Ubuntu Touch based phone.

phoronixrly 8mo ago

We (people who live in a country/confederacy with working antitrust laws) have power to keep large companies from anticompetitive practices such as this one.

pessimizer 8mo ago
What country does this "we" that you speak of live in? In the US there hasn't been any antitrust enforcement for 30 years (really more like 50 years, but I'm being generous), Obama appointed a crop of judges that don't even believe in antitrust as a concept, and Congress doesn't do anything that hasn't been paid for by a donor any more. I haven't heard about any other countries doing any better, either. Their systems were even cheaper to subvert.

fsflover 8mo ago

> Fully opensource hardware with fully opensource software? Maybe, but also this is wishful thinking. My smartphone runs an FSF-endorsed OS, PureOS. This is reality. It's not open hardware, but it's a long way from Android in the right direction. You can also get a Precursor, which is open hardware.

direwolf20 8mo ago
A Precursor costs about 1000$ and only does cryptography, not Flappy Bird. Most of these supposedly open alternatives make no economic sense.
- notorandit 8mo ago
  It does instead, imho. Commercial phone cost also includes the data value it steals continuously.