Google has the AOSP. They did remove the ICEBlock app from their store, but unlike iOS, that was never going to fully remove the app from their ecosystem.
If Google forcibly revoked the signature of the app, Android users can still build and access versions of Android with the app. Alternative app stores are a huge boon, but the real coup-de-grace is an Open Source OS.
AOSP is a joke. This is coming from a custom rom user.
Google has been squeezing custom roms for the past 10 years. They barely work, and this is both on purpose and unavoidable. Google shoves DRM anywhere they can get their grubby little hands into.
Also, AOSP doesn't even run on any devices. Anywhere. You need mountains of supplemental proprietary blobs and Google systems to get it onto a phone.
Also, Google is trying to kill all apps outside the play store anyway.
> AOSP is a joke. This is coming from a custom rom user.
Its an open source software right? Free for anyone to do anything. Were you expecting a highly polished, it-just-works with free software? Isnt that being a little entitled?
Yes, I am entitled. No, I don't really care that Google has to put in more effort.
If it were up to me, we would enforce it by law. The consequences of a completely locked down mobile ecosystem are dire for humanity.
Yes, thats the level of things were talking about here. There's those who take the threat seriously, and those who don't. As each year passes by, it becomes more difficult to justify a state of apathy.
Free money has fuck all to do with it. This is about freedom and the perseverance of humanity.
If it makes you feel better, I do pay many hundreds of dollars a year for open source software. All donations.
I'm not saying that to brag or anything, but since we want to start making moral arguments, I think it's likely I'm much less of a freeloader than you. Um, ouch.
Genuine question, not a mobile dev: does this app even work on Android without Google services? The developer said they don't have their own database or location services and had to "[utilize] iCloud in kind of a creative way" to provide alerts that ICE agents were nearby.
If Google forcibly revoked the signature of the app, Android users can still build and access versions of Android with the app. Alternative app stores are a huge boon, but the real coup-de-grace is an Open Source OS.