A one day wait period to install an app on your mobile pocket computer. Fucken bullshit.
Edit: to all the “its one time” defenders, its one time for now. Stop falling for it. It always starts with an inch.
I think it is a reasonable compromise. They could have made it a day wait for any and every time you wanted to side load like this. It prevents accidental or malicious activation, while also giving you the feature you want with the smallest of roadblocks as confirmation you want it. And you only have to do it one time. I don’t think it’s the burden you do.
People this willing to let a self-enriching corporate nanny state erode their ability to use the products they paid for terrify me.
People this willing to fall for the blatant corporate strategy of “We’ll announce something unthinkable but then backpedal to something “only” terrible (and then probably do the unthinkable thing later now that we’ve encroached further and softened the blow)” for the millionth time confound me.
Show some dignity; jesus christ. This isn’t a “compromise”. Me breaking into your house, threatening to kill you, but then “only” hitting you with a bat and leaving isn’t a “compromise”.
In the sales world, this effect is called “price anchoring” and is used by tons of companies. All those sales you see where something is “marked down 50%!” are using a manufacturers price that does exist in real life to get that 50% markdown. In reality, the sale price is just the actual price of the item but people see the “huge discount” and think they’re getting a deal.
Long live lineagos
Things like LineageOS are a workaround, not a solution.
The solution has to be legal, not technical. Companies have to be stopped from trying to fuck with users’ property rights in the first place!
Yup. I’ve heard this first about Home Assistant, but software like this often inadvertently acts like a pacifier for tech enthusiasts. We may have our neat solution for the moment and be content with that, but that doesn’t help anyone else, or us in the long term. Things will get worse with no push-back.
Disclaimer: That’s not to say that we shouldn’t advocate for those tools in the meantime as well. We just shouldn’t lose track of the actual problem.
The US constitution basically guarantees us root access to our own lives (life, liberty, and the pursuit of property/happiness). I’d like the same or better for my devices.
People get what they pay for.
Hyperbole much?
This is a basic balance between the needs of the few, and the security of the many. The benefits of a one day speed bump are far more beneficial for the billions of Android users in the world, and offer no meaningful negatives to those that wish to enable this feature beyond that delay.
I realize that many people here are in or adjacent to IT work, and so are more passionate about these sorts of topics and are well versed in the risks, but in my opinion, allowing a simple, immediate way to bypass all security checks and install whatever you want immediately is a pretty big security hole, even if it is self-created. It makes sense to put those roadblocks up to protect the 99.9% that will never use this feature, as well as those that may activate it not understanding the risk. You may be comfortable with it, and that’s great, but that doesn’t mean every Android should. This is why prompts asking about coercion and not your IT prowess.
Finally. your example is poor. Google is not breaking into your phone and hurting you in way. If anything, it’s like a real estate agent that’s not giving you the keys until the bank opens so your check can clear. It’s a process issue, nothing more.
Your ability to use your device, as you see fit, installing anything you want, is entirely possible with a single one-day delay. As I said, I don’t think it is an unreasonable ask, nor the enormous inconvenience you make it out to be.
It’s my device. If I want to brick it I should be able to.
I don’t need google telling me what I can put on this fucking phone I bought and paid for.
And they’re not. Load all the unsigned stuff you want after you wait one day. Again, I don’t see how this is a huge burden to ask.
It sure is a completely unnecessary burden designed as a deterrant.
It will likely have that effect on some, yes. It will also prevent it from being enabled without knowing the full scope of your ask. But that’s kind of the point— it’s a big deal, and the user should be informed. Not everyone is capable of understanding these decisions immediately and accurately assessing risk.
At some point, there is always, always a compromise between user experience and security, and not everyone is going to like it. But in this instance, I think the benefits of having this process and cool-down period to make the risks known far outweigh the need for immediate gratification by the minority of users that will enable and use this feature.
I don’t believe that this is for the better, nor that this is done in good faith to protect users. They already tried to make it mandatory to go through Google, which is a pretty clear hint of their actual goal.
Google pushes the safety narrative, but this also conveniently entrenches Google as the authority over alternatives and hurts not only FOSS, but also competing app stores from other companies like Amazon, Samsung, or whatever Chinese manufacturers.
What is it a compromise between? People who think they own the thing they paid for and people who don’t?
Obviously we need to find a middle ground between owning the things we purchase, and not owning them. Having access, but making it annoying is a very reasonable option.
Why? We are paying full price for these devices and nothing in any agreement made at the time of purchase suggests that you don’t own them. Why is it necessary to meet a middle ground between “you got what you paid for” and “you didn’t”?
that was a very obvious joke
After reading through the rest of this comment section, I’m not so sure about that
Poe’s law. You should have used tone indicators…
Because everything must get worse.
I realize you are making a joke, and I agree that purchase is always better than subscription. Everyone in this situation owns their device.
But that doesn’t mean an easy to activate security bypass should be made available to everyone with no guardrails, either, should it?
A reasonable compromise would be not telling people what they can and can’t do on devices they paid for. If Google wants that level of control, they can buy my phone for me.
While I understand your sentiment, with all due respect, they are giving you the control with this process. You’re only mad you have to wait one day one time before you can do it.
I don’t have to do shit, because I Graphene for the same reason I use Linux. I’m not interested in asking a corporation for permission to do what I want.
No. Fuck all of that. I will not have some fucking Corp tell me what I can install and when on my own goddamn hardware.
If they want to implement something like this, make it an opt-in toggle during device setup to put the phone into nanny mode
It used to be no time at all. You could just do it. From that perspective they’ve already taken a mile.
From zero to any nonzero value is infinite miles
I mean, it always starts with an inch but what people dont get is that compared to the 2000’s we are a mile deep and compared to rhe 80’s we are already in a dystopia.
In the '80s we’d need a building to do a fraction what our phones do now. Even in the 2000s they would qualify as a supercomputer. I guarantee you wouldn’t be able to install whatever you wanted on any of those computers and even if you could, a days wait would be lightning fast in comparison.
Well if you’re in the US you can head down to your LGS, buy a Glock 19 and do some plinking while you wait for the software to install on your phone :/
sushhh… the shareholders’ imaginary line has to go up.
A one day wait period to install an app on your mobile pocket computer.
And that somehow supposed to stop users from inflicting their phones with virus software? Like, it does not make sense. Okay, force all devs to upload their IDs, no biggie (I guess). But do not lock users into the “tough luck, you cant sideload” system. 1 day wait will not prevent anything. They just added a mild annoyance for 24h, nothing more.
Forcing all devs to upload their IDs is not a no biggie
It appears that the “security wait” will be a one time thing when you first allow installing from unverified sources. After enabling it it will remain on indefiniately.
Not quite as bad as I was fearing, but will kinda annoying.
“Not quire as bad”? My dude, you have to ask for permission from a corporation to install an app on your phone that you supposedly own and paid for. On what planet is this not awful?
This is happening to PCs now too, eg. with the OS ‘age-gating’ laws that IMO only exist to quell competition for MS, Google, and Apple.
I sincerely doubt that will actually come into fruition. There’s no way to force all linux distros to have that. At least I hope there isn’t.
Goodby Ubuntu (community), you are now Ukuhaha (greed), freeBSD is now non-free BSD, openSuse/closedSuse, Fedora becomes Baseball Cap, Enlightenment WM becomes Samsara WM, etc.
So its time to move to a distro without systemd?
That’s an option, and one I already took having recently moved to Artix.
I have no doubt that they’re pushing this because it hands then market share stolen from superior devs who distribute via multiple channels and dont ascribe to their top-down philosophy.
For real! I used to redo my phone all the time, especially before big trips. I can imagine myself getting ready to go to (insert remote designation here) and I’m sitting in my home office the day before prepping my phone with a fresh slate of travel apps after clearing out all the stale user data. Now if I start too late, I would theoretically have to finish 24h later, perhaps when I’m in Nigeria (frequent power outages) or Germany (different play store rules and feature availability). Just leave me alone already. If someone is really very very scam-prone, you buy them one of those fisher price phones with big huge numbers and no screen, or you put parental controls on the phone.
to be fair, this is not “asking for permission”. that’s what xiaomi is doing, but not this. on xiaomi phones, to be able to unlock the bootloader or grant higher permissions to adb, you have to insert a live sim card, log in with an “mi account”, and have the server decide whether you are allowed doing that. for unlocking you additionally have to wait for several days, if you can get the approval process started that is, and hopefully you will be allowed.
unless it turns out this requires internet connection, a sim card, or a google account, this is just a safety procedure. and it’s hard to say but this world is so full of incredibly dumb people that all both need and want to use shiny smartphones for all that convenience and social media addiction, that a safeguard like this is needed.
Yep, it’s pretty bad, it sets a bad precedent, and has me looking for alternatives.
When it was originally announced I got the impression that Google would soon be removing the ability to sideload apps altogether and as I almost entirely use apps installed from “untrusted” sources this would have been a nightmare for me.
So while I think this whole situation is shit, and will almost certainly lead to Google removing the ability to sideload apps in the future, for me the immediate anxiety has been lifted.
You do realize that what you’re saying might’ve been the goal all along? It’s literally an “I’m altering the deal, pray I don’t alter it further” vader moment and you’re saying you’re relieved. Make no mistake, you, me and every single Android user was just fucked over and it’ll only get worse.
I don’t think I made myself clear; I am relievd because I thought I was going to lose access to my apps in the next update cycle. The thought of that filled me with anxiety, but now I have more time to prepare.
I’m hoping that something like lineageOS will be unaffected and will be available for my device before Google remove sideloading altogether
Custom ROMs are unaffected, for now, but Google’s gonna find other ways to kill those.
And that is the tactic commonly used to slowly boil the frog.
to be fair, this is not “asking for permission”. that’s what xiaomi is doing, but not this. on xiaomi phones, to be able to unlock the bootloader or grant higher permissions to adb, you have to insert a live sim card, log in with an “mi account”, and have the server decide whether you are allowed doing that. for unlocking you additionally have to wait for several days, if you can get the approval process started that is, and hopefully you will be allowed.
unless it turns out this requires internet connection, a sim card, or a google account, this is just a safety procedure. and it’s hard to say but this world is so full of incredibly dumb people that all both need and want to use shiny smartphones for all that convenience and social media addiction, that a safeguard like this is needed.
It looks like a glorified ‘developer mode’ switch that has the 1 day wait to prevent someone from grabbing your phone, turning on sideloading, installing some hazardous app, and then having their way with your info. This appears to be the best of both worlds.
Like when unlocking your bootloader wiped your info. Just do it first. not a year in to using your device, if thats your plan.
If they’re already into your phone there’s so many legitimate ways to extract your data. The ability to sideload an app won’t impact that.
Technically installing an app allows continuous spying instead of one-time offloading. It’s an actual consideration with spyware like Pegasus: it might’ve been used as a bug to listen to offline conversations.
The OS is the spyware, they’re ensuring you cannot remove it.
10 years ago I would have called that a stretch. After Windows 11, there is no doubt that Windows is spyware.
What % of users side load apps vs what % of users had someone else install a bug on their phone?
It’s a situation that statistically doesn’t happen, and now every legitimate user is being inconvenienced to stop it? This if like agree verification laws being sold as “protecting children” as an excuse to spy on and control people.
Oh really, so the Pegasus attacks on Galina Timchenko and dozens of other people, including Jamal Khashoggi, never happened? Or, do you seriously not understand that the impact on one journalist is greater than on thousands of nobodies like you?
Google could’ve implemented better measures to circumvent bugging, like iPhones’ ‘lockdown’ mode, but claiming that infecting with spyware never happens on Android is plain disingenuous and idiotic.
Sure. Because as we know people grabbing your unlocked phone to sideload apps onto it is an almost daily occurrence. Which of us hasn’t had a stranger install a cryto miner while we looked away for a second.
Get real. This is an imaginary problem affecting the 0.01% they are using to tell you this action is justifiable. Getting more control is the aim of their game
Lmfao. I’ll invent a better way and it will only take me negative 50 years to do it.
Passcode.
There is absolutely nothing positive about this. It is only nefarious, full stop. I could open a million dollar restaurant that served microwaved cat shit, but on the menu it’s called “Tbone Steak” and with your logic, people wouldn’t notice the difference.
Okay, pump the breaks a second.
I agree a day wait is bullshit, but you think a passcode is enough to keep someone from… anything? You can shoulder surf a passcode in no time at all. Hell, it’s not even difficult. Go to a bar, talk someone up, give a legit reason to use someone’s phone, intentionally lock and force a passcode and 99% of people at bars will put their pin in within eyesight, or tell you the code.
A passcode isn’t as big a deterrent as most people seem to think it is. It’ll keep you out of an unattended phone you found, but there are plenty of ways to socially engineer your way into having it for the vast majority of targets.
And yes, you likely wouldn’t give your passcode out. But this is how a number of ne’er-do-wells got unfettered access to hundreds of iPhones, and prompted Apple to put a semi similar 24 hour lock on certain security actions if you aren’t in a “known to the phone” location (somewhere you frequent like home or work).
Edit to note: passwords aren’t much better. One of my hobbies in college was shoulder surfing classmates passwords just to repeat it back to them later in the day. Though on a phone you have far fewer reasons to type in an associated accounts password.
When you couple what you just said with what they’re trying to do, your own argument can be made in my favor.
One of my hobbies in college was shoulder surfing classmates passwords just to repeat it back to them later in the day. Though on a phone you have far fewer reasons to type in an associated accounts password.
Never tell anyone else this again, and stop doing it. What an insane invasion of privacy.
My security should be my choice on my device end of story. My password/passcode plus encryption with easily accessible ways to put it into lockdown mode and have lockdown mode on a continuous timer is absolutely enough for my threat model.
I don’t need any else making any addition call on it, and I definitely don’t need someone that is willingly bragging about invading others privacy coaching me on what these companies are intending while actively trying to take my right to privacy away.
You call it an invasion of privacy, I call it fucking with friends while teaching them to be cognizant of who is watching what they do. You realize they can (and did) just immediately change their password right?
I’m also not sure how “the average person treats their passcodes and passwords like everyone is intentionally looking away” somehow strengthens “lock making the phone less secure behind a passcode” as an argument.
And yes, it 100% lowers the security of the phone. Which absolutely is your choice. Which I also do, and have done with my wife and kids phones. But the idea that a passcode is somehow a solution is just silly.
Not as silly as a 24 hour wait controlled by google, but still silly.
An option for full password on every cold boot with pin for subsequent unlocks would strengthen security without removing user freedom.
Other people not knowing how to secure their devices is not an excuse for my device that I own to block me from using it the way I want to.
That isn’t at all what I said.
I’m explicitly arguing that a passcode is useless for this kind of situation.
Oh yeah, because those guys seriously can’t wait a day
This has nothing to do with security
When has your imaginary scenario ever been a problem? Can you name a single example where that has happenned? Stop making excuses for corporations fucking over their users.
So this feature is disabled if you have a pin?
Until you have to help someone install an app not available to them.
Xfinity stream for example is not on the Chromecast play store, even though an Android build exists on the Fire TV store. I had to guide my dad through this. In this case it wouldn’t be possible for 24 hours.
Had a similar issue with an app not available in a friend’s region.
I could live with the whole flow minus the delay. This is shit, just pure shit.
One day wait period to enable installing third party apps. Afterwards no extra wait time or verification.
For now. Don’t fight to give them an inch
There shouldnt be any wait. Its stupid and completely arbitrary
To those who think it is a fair compromise: It is not.
Android already had one layer of this shit before. When installid freshly dowloaded apk, android would prompt you to confirm that the source of the apk is trusted. This was not like this before. Before you’d just install apk.
And I agree to a certain amount. But thing is, it was added for no specific reason. People who install apks form outside source, will keep doing it and they 99% of the time know what they are doing or being told to do so by someone who knows what they are doing.
Adding another layer to this wont solve the problem, except make users annoyed for 24h wait time. And this is only adding 1 layer now. Who the fuck knows what is going to be 1 year later. 5 years later?
They also had a protection where you couldn’t install apks when on a phone call
No one thinks this is fair. Little old grannys don’t side load apps, so they don’t need protection.
The thing is, people who do it and trust others to say, “just do it” - are the crazy ones.
It’s like the bs Tech Talk in TikTok. Always telling you to run RegEdit and such… oof.
fuck google. We immediately need linux like alternative to android
Is GrapheneOS a good enough alternative?
I am very interested in switching to that when their phone comes out… But I wish pure Linux were viable.
It just works. Some banking apps won’t.
One of my banking apps (Citi) didn’t even work in stock Android on a Pixel. It thinks I’m rooted lol.
Everything works well enough in the browser though. Nowadays I just do all that stuff on a desktop PC. Not everything needs to be an app or even done on a phone.
The desktop versions of bank websites have everything I need, whereas mobile versions can skip out on certain features. Plus, these apps tend to hoard perms for “security” reasons, or so they say.
If you have a strong password and legit MFA (like TOTP or a physical key), use a trusted device/browser that’s good enough. There shouldn’t be a need to grab my location or nearby devices.
Bonus points if the bank lets you review login sessions and deauth devices, flags things like impossible travel, etc.
Credit unions tend to do better. DCU is one example. They excel at security, don’t do any silliness with perms in their app, let you review logins and devices, and have a strong MFA implementation. The big private national players just want to sell you to data brokers to pad their margins while you pay ridiculous interest rates on their crappy products and get nothing in return.
I use the browser with a hardware TAN generator, though my bank’s app works fine on GOS.
Graphene has some quirks, but overall experience is solid. Not perfect, but it does the job.
We basically need an android compatibility layer before that can happen.
Iirc, ValvE was working on one for the Steam Frame so all the Android VR games will run natively on SteamOS.
Edit: its called Lepton. Here’s an article i found about it.
Iirc lepton basically just runs Waydroid/lineage under the hood so its still android
I’m not sure that would be necessary, actually. Android is derived from Linux, surely they can do a translation layer for the majority of API calls? I mean there’s no need for emulating anything, nor would it necessarily require layering an entire android install on top of Linux…? But my programming knowledge is limited, and somewhat rusty, so I’m not really sure.
Its just full Android.
90% of Android isn’t Linux it’s, well, Android.
I’m not too familiar with the project, but I thought I heard talk about it being a compat. layer instead of a VM. Idk though, I might be entirely wrong lol.
Its just full Android.
90% of Android isn’t Linux it’s, well, Android.
Never mind then lol. Might at least be more optimized like they did with Wine/Proton.
I’m interested in Jolla phones who develop this os: https://sailfishos.org/
“Sideloading”
Aka avoiding the monopoly app store with your own device
We should stop calling it sideloading as if it’s something bad. It’s just installing.
It’s my device FFS!
It’s a term few decades old, and means transferring files between local devices.
You download the app on your pc, you sideload it to your local device (your phone) using
adb sideload file.apk, and you use that installed app to upload pictures of your mom.Everyone now having internet access in those local devices means you can do the download on it directly, but for android, the process is still there and used whenever you install stuff not from the play store.
I usually download apk directly to my android devices and install from there, no pc or other device is needed. So your whenever is for me almost never.
how DARE you threaten stockholder value like that !
;)
I’m so glad I don’t ‘sideload’ anything, never learned how. I have been installing software since the 90s though and it’s pretty much the same as always.
Joke aside, it really seems more like ‘sideloading’ when you go to a store, to ask it to install something on your phone instead of just installing it directly on the device.
it’s very clear we have to escape Android and Google entirely, there is no other option.
Please donate to PostmarketOS if you have the means, it gives us a true alternative that is completely community owned, it just needs our support to become polished and to add support for more phones.
We have to support software that’s still made for us. While we still can.
Yes, I am more seriously than ever looking into using Postmarket OS.
Is no one realizing that apps still have to register and ID themselves? It says that apps limited to 20 people or less won’t need to. At least the phrasing lends itself to that suspicion.
Google wishes it had Apple’s walled garden so badly
Headline is a little misleading. There is a one day waiting period when you enable installing third party applications. After that you can install them indefinitely. It’s to stop active scams. I agree it’s BS, but it’s a lot less BS than I was expecting and what the headline/comments are making it out to be.
What active scams? These scams should be pretty ubiquitous at this point if they’re doing all this to “stop” them, but I’ve never even heard of anyone having security issues from sideloaded apps.
I don’t agree that tech companies need to put up walled gardens to protect people from themselves, but ‘what scams’ is insanely disingenuous. Obviously the scams where people, usually elderly, are walked through the process of enabling third party apps so the scammer, posing as a bank or other trusted institution, can then install malicious apps. If you’ve really never heard of that then I think you need to step outside of your bubble a bit more.
Ive heard plenty of examples of elderly people getting conned into buying ITunes gift cards to pay their “delinquent taxes” but I find the thought of trying to explain the process of activating developer mode, navigating to some shady website, downloading an apk, finding the download folder, and then installing some bootleg app to a confused elderly person, over the phone on the very device they want you to do this on to be quite comical. I can’t see many of these people completing even step one of that process.
I’m sure there are malicious apps to sideload out there, but those are also all over the PlayStore too, so I don’t see what this change really fixes.
I can’t even walk 40 years old through installing a fucking authenticator over the phone THROUGH THE APP STORE. This is such a fucking insanely unnecessary and inefficient way to scam lmao
all they have to do now is press a single link to install a scam apk.
Okay but what’s stopping the scammer from telling you to install his app from the play store which is less trustworthy than, say, f-droid?
They would never admit to the play store malware problem.
That doesn’t at all address the original problem or what this person is trying to convey to you.
It’s okay to be wrong sometimes. This is one of those times.
Stop fucking calling it sideloading. It is called installing an app
I teach digital literacy and 99% of unsavory software I encounter on people’s phones come from the play store or app store
I will believe that they’re serious about protecting users when I see them do something about the crap ton of borderline scam solitaire and weather apps infesting their stores
Your wish is fulfilled. Google now requires the government id, full biometrics and shared gps location to publish apps in the store.
See, that is fine. If Google wants to have a safe and curated, high quality store, (which it doesn’t), it is very logical that it would want to have the origins of software very well identified.
AS LONG AS it provides a mechanism for users to access other sources of software.
They are doing the opposite, allow bullshit apps in the “safe store” while hindering the independents.
We desperately need a decently competent OSS phone OS, if possible with a compatibility layer for Android apps.
I mean, yeah. They do. Would it be finally enough to stop all scammers online? All in on a clear “No”.
So, the idea is to make the process as annoying as possible.
No. It’s to make it very annoying. It’s not as annoying as possible, because it could always be more annoying.
The idea is to make it so you get annoyed and pay for YouTube premium. Money is the only idea.
“This is Android’s new ‘advanced flow’ for INSTALLING apps without verification”. Sideloading is such a bullshit term made only to confuse consumers. They can wrap that in sparkling wrapper, but it’s still security theater at best and definetly misleading. Apps from F-Droid or any other app ‘store’ are not any less safe than the ones at googles own offering.
Without verification by Google. I am very much capable of verifying the origin and trustworthiness of the apps I install.
The advanced flow is not for “installing apps”. It’s for sideloaded apps.
Semantics, no? Side loading is an alternate way of installing.
Yes, it is, thank you.
Do you consider installing games to you PC from Steam sideloading too? What about downloading Firefox installer? It is installing software on your computer, no matter if that computer happens to be in a cellphone form factor, and always has been. Sideloading is a made up term to make it sound somehow dangerous or complicated in order to justify even bigger walls on the ecosystem garden and control how people use their own devices.
Do you consider installing games to you PC
This is not a PC though. Whether you or I like it or not, they are different. And no one wants to type out “installing apps from outside the Google Play Store” every time. It’s a useful term.
Sideloading is a made up term
All terms are made up.
to make it sound somehow dangerous or complicated in order to justify
[Citation needed]
People keep saying this but it makes absolutely no sense. The term predates both Apple and Google, and nothing about the term itself suggests it is “dangerous”.
“installing apps from outside the Google Play Store”
To me that implies it’s somehow different than just installing software. You could say ‘install from play store’ or ‘install from f-droid’ if you need to specify which app repository you should use, as that what it is. Sideloading might be an appropriate term if you need to upload apk to your device via USB-cable from your PC, which the term originally meant.
to make it sound somehow dangerous or complicated in order to justify
[Citation needed]
From the article:
This “advanced flow” is for power users and enthusiasts who “want to take educated risks to install software from unverified developers.” Google says it was “designed carefully to prevent those in the midst of a scam attempt from being coerced by high pressure tactics to install malicious software.”
Sure, the term itself comes from 1990s, but lately specially Google tries to twist that to mean something only ‘power users’ do and it comes with a ‘educated risk’.
To me that implies it’s somehow different than just installing software.
That’s because it is, as I’ve just finished explaining. Again, see the “advanced flow” in OP? This does not apply to “installing software”. It only applies to sideloading. I’m not sure why this is so difficult to understand.
You could say ‘install from play store’ or ‘install from f-droid’ if you need to specify which app repository you should use
That’s true, if you were referring to a specific repository, but the term “sideloading” does not refer to any specific repository, as you know.
From the article:
None of this says “sideloading” or refers specifically to the term, it refers to the practice.
Google tries to twist that to mean something only ‘power users’ do and it comes with a ‘educated risk’.
You’re incredibly naive if you think anyone other than “power users” are sideloading.
And it does come with risk, because it might come from a reputable source like FDroid or it might be a random app from some unverified (by anyone) sketchy website, and the system has no technological means to tell the difference.
This does not apply to “installing software”.
So it doesn’t apply when I click the big button which says ‘Install’ on F-Droid app on my phone?
And it does come with risk,
Just like installing software from the ‘secure’ Google Play store.
Installing software is installing software, no matter where you get that software from. That’s it. You can try to twist that with nuances on terminology or invent new ones, the end result is that an piece of software is installed on the system and nothing more. It doesn’t matter if the software came from play store, f-droid, steam, windows store, shady google drive link or the pirate bay. It doesn’t matter if you’re a power user or never seen a smartphone before in your life.
Sure, there might differences in potential security, compatibility, licensing and whatever, but it is still a piece of software being installed.
So it doesn’t apply when I click the big button which says ‘Install’ on F-Droid app on my phone?
Please note the use of quotes. I was using “installing software” the way you were, as in literally any software. Whereas this does not apply to apps in the Google Play Store. That’s why the distinction is important.
Just like installing software from the ‘secure’ Google Play store.
Yes, just like that, except a higher level of risk, because potentially no one is verifying the validity of said software. And as I already explained, there’s no technological way for the OS to differentiate a legitimate source like FDroid from a random sketchy website on the internet.
Installing software is installing software, no matter where you get that software from
Except it’s not, because sideloading is different, as you know, if you actually read the OP, and if you actually read my comments where I already explained how it’s different.
Now I’m done repeating myself over and over, so unless you have something new to contribute to the discussion, I’m out. Have a nice day!
So it’s on the same scale as buying a gun in the states.
I didn’t realise it was so dangerous.
Political power grows from the barrel of f-droid
Not quite. The majority of states have no waiting period to buy a gun and there’s no federal law, either.
Oh. It’s more dangerous than a gun then!
It’s so weird that they don’t take comments on the android developer blog post… Almost like they think it’ll be hugely unpopular.
Google is the epitome of living long enough to become the villain.
They changed their “don’t be evil” motto years ago. I guess they must have kept two thirds of it.
A motto was never going to stop them from going sour. Any corporation that gets large enough and is publicly traded is going to attract sociopaths, narcissists and other Patrick Bateman wannabes to the positions of leadership within the corp like sharks to chum. It is a matter of when that gradual shift from good people to bad people takes place, not if.
The problem is that our economy and corporate structures reward the scummiest people because they’re the best at making profits.
