"The Proprietarization of Android – Google Play Services and Apps"

[Nico Rikken]

Nice read!

I agree. Now a happy owner of the Fairphone 2 with Open Source Android
build http://code.fairphone.com/, the app-ecosystem is still a
struggle. To the point where people are writing up great posts how to
circumvent the issue by using NoGApps and microG.
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/pencil2-living-without-google-2-0-a-googl
e-free-fp2/11587/301
Getting hands on APK's outside of F-Droid is something I haven't looked
much into yet.
Signal is mentioned in the linked post, but that is partly because the
project is unwilling to allow distribution via F-Droid, even aside from
the Google Services integration. Still the end-result is that I can
only use Signal on a non-free device :(

So indeed, the ecosystem is degrading, both on the side of the hardware
(drivers and such), as with services and the app-ecosystem. The free-
software die-hards can cope, but it remains a struggle.

On the upside, I have bought a commercial phone (Fairphone 2) and
transitioned to a free solution with just a couple of clicks on the
phone. I hope that that in this way the Google Play store will have
more competition, also of free alternatives, to the point where we can
no longer speak of lock-in.

On di, 2016-06-21 at 07:27 +0200, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
> Torsten wrote an interesting blog post about the tendency that more
> and
> more relevant functionality on Android is moved to the proprietary
> Google Play Services:
> https://blog.grobox.de/2016/the-proprietarization-of-android-google-p
> lay-services-and-apps/
> 
> I am interested in your views on this.
> 
> Regards,
> Matthias
>