From the article: “Google says that only apps with verified identities will be installable on certified Android devices, which is virtually every Android-based device—if it has Google services on it, it’s a certified device. If you have a non-Google build of Android on your phone, none of this applies.”
To me that last sentence sounds a bit simplistic. I’m sure it will impact non-Google builds in some fashion; perhaps by refusing to install Google Certified apps that can function with Micro-G spoofing abilities.
Is this the point where some enterprising group forks Android into the Non-Certified build branch and breaks free entirely from Google?
My feeling is that the ‘none-of-this-applies’ goes to those manufacturers who truly escaped g-daddy at the hardware level.
Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely that google as OEM has zero control over it’s hardware… For example, firmware updates and such. It has to tread so carefully though because people OWN the hardware and pay to license the software usage.
Big Tech’s bad is it’s service of it’s own (corrupted) interests over and above the interests of it’s customers
This is one of the steps that will make using custom ROM on a consumer-grade Android devices not possible soon.
When you have such a grip over the ecosystem, you can find many ways to kill custom ROMs. Google can simply restrict bootloader unlock on Pixel, and restrict other manufacturers that license their software to allow bootloader unlock.
Google used the pixel devices as a leverage over other manufacturers when negotiating licenses. If a manufacturer wouldn’t want to play ball, they have to do what Huawei is trying to do and build their own non-Android OS, which won’t be possible for most.
This will fortunately not affect custom hardware makers that won’t buy Google’s license - that’s us and very few other phone/tablet markers.
But for the “alt tech” to succeed, it needs to get more traction, so there is some leverage with stakeholders in the ecosystem (telcos, app developers, certification bodies, etc.).
Pixel is glorified as the only secure hardware from the loudest custom ROM. As if other devices were getting cracked left and right, and Pixel was uncrackable (obviously not true since no government agency, where top experts vet the solutions, uses a pixel device). And that noise was (is still) suffocating the development of alt tech devices.
Excellent commentary! This limits speculation about the unknown. Now all we need is a way to come up with an affectation for Google like we have for FB ie “…I am ZUCKED…”
Yes you own the hardware. In the case of Apple and any other highly proprietary corporation, the hardware is just useless without the software. Like a $3K dongle without an agreed upon (and now signed in) consent usage… Forever updating and changing the terms to benefit the Corporation/Shareholders - Security for who, me, or the SEC?!?
Up until just recently, Alphabet did a fine job portraying fairness in the marketplace with AOSP. This has come to an end now. Will it bode well for them to move into the proprietary this late in the game? Look what’s happening to Microsoft! - both lack the aesthetic and artistic flair of Apple which fueled it’s proprietary stance in the first place.
Apple never played fair and shunned the ‘hackintosh’ to non existence. Heck, it even shuns it’s own after 5 to 10 years. Ironic that it is a close cousin to Linux, no?
Here is another possible nightmare. Alphabet is so big they can require the cellular network providers to limit clients to operating systems approved by them. All it needs to get control is by offering discounts on equipment or other intangible subsidies. We are effectively ZUCKED.
Will this affect any of the apps we try to use? Like trying to get stuff off Aurora? Already it seems like fewer and fewer of the apps on Aurora are able to be downloaded and function on our Brax3s. Or is that just me?
It’s not just you. Downloading android apps through alternative stores have been a game of cat and mouse for years.
We have identified improvements that can offer better consistency. We’re working on something as part of our roadmap - we will share in due course.
If I am a froggy I am also boiling. I have just learned reason number 231 about my order. I guess its time to go back to the Yellow Brick Road and ask Dorothy if she knows the way to the Emerald city. Are the Brax 3 now in the Tornado that we can not yet see?
That’s the same trap desktop that Apple fell into with trying to control their desktop OS. If Microsoft had not given them a financial lifeline and the iPhone, we’re not such a huge success Apple would have ceased to exist. obviously the Google death star did not learn that lesson.