Yes, some of the latest commits to AOSP repo added code to the Package Installer app for denying .apk package installation based on developer verification result, and even for denying installing .apk packages when internet isn't available so it can't contact Google's servers for developer verification results. Google is already making it clear this kind BS is how they intend to enforce this ridiculous decree.

Found the guy who never reads lol

LMAO I bet you can't name one single feature/product Google released where "transparency" of how it works is a thing, it's almost like anti-transparancy UX design is something they love on a philosophical level, even for features or products that have absolutely nothing to do with advertising lol

Not to mention Valve spearheaded major development for making Linux gaming like 200% better than it used to be, with development of Proton and everything, and giving all those work back to the entire gaming community as open source products entirely for free, bring in momentum for an entire industry.

That's a company you support.

This can't possibly be unintentional right?

Remember an aircraft carrier is not just an airport on a ship, it's also the intelligence center and CIC of the entire battle group, so an aircraft carrier is equipped with literally the best radar and sensor suites of any vessel in the entire navy, that combined with the sheer number of people that will be on watch duty on such a massive ship, there is simply no possibility it could somehow "accidentally miss" a cargo ship to a point where a collision could happen.

While on the other side, Suez canal is some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, so all cargo vessels follow strictly prescribed paths when leaving the canal, there's no reason for one single exiting ship among a swarm of them to have gone out its way to have a chance to collide with an incoming vessel, one that's has the best sensor suite as well as some of the most powerful propulsion capabilities.

Am I missing something here???

He's not obligated to provide support but there are infinitely many ways for decline providing support without insulting someone for being an Android user, and insulting Android users in general, at the same time, literally the moment when someone sought for support.

Especially when Discord is not even inherently a support platform to begin with, Discord is a fricking instant massaging platform, this is fundamentally no different from insulting a stranger on the street the moment they started a conversation, with the most BS insult ever.

And hopefully it can be highly rich in rare minerals, so that when the ashes of WW3 finally settle down, at least the future generations of humans or not-human sapient entities will at least get something good out of the whole ridiculous mess we're currently in lol

This question shows you do not seem to understand what is actually going on.

It's not the OS that need to be supported it's the phone who's manufecturer isn't contractually bound by Google to implement developer verification for blocking installation, otherwise they lose access to Google's proprietary suite including Play Store.

There are already a LOT of existing, established and technological mature OSes that are open source and don't need to block anyone for installation applications, including Android AOSP itself.

But the problem is you canNOT use a smartphone OS without a smartphone which allows you to run it on, with unlockable bootloader so you can install the desired OS, or is designed to run the desired OS instead of Google's garbage out of the box.

Everything you described takes half a decade minimal to be put into reality. You are literally describing building a whole fricking industry. And we all know how fast you can establish industries in North America.

When a literal bully is stabbing you, you do NOT wait for half a decade to do something about that.

Instead, retaliatory tariffs are pretty much the only thing they can do instantly as a government.

It doesn't work like that for mainstream manufactures, the way Google does this, as they have declared so far, is making it a contractal obligation to keep this code in order for them to get Google's GMS certificate, which Google requires for authorizing them to integrate Google's suite into their phone's ROM, including Play Store and Google Service Framework, which are all proprietary software which manufacturers are not legally allowed to distribute without Google's authorization. And outside China it doesn't look like most mainstream manufactures dare to sell an Android phone without Google's Play Store, thanks to the wonderful collective of the Android users making fricking brilliant choices with their wallet over the decade, didn't they?

The only way out of this for a government agency to step in it seems because Google really does have the manufacturers cornered here.

As someone who also speaks Chinese natively and have additionally seriously studied classical Chinese and used to read historical documents and books, no not at all.

I always have Chinese text in the same font size as English, never found myself in need of adjusting the font size at all.

However, I am studying German and I do sometimes finding myself wanting to enlarge the font a bit, even though it's the mostly the same Latin script as English.

I think ultimately it depends on how familiar you are with the script, once you are sufficiently familiar you only ever need to be parsing a part of the script when you're reading it, at least most of the time and in daily uses, so glyph stroke density is not in itself an issue.

By the way if you find Chinese script looks cramped, look up the historical Tangut script! XD

This is just a Linux VM just like th Crostini in ChromeOS, so I'd expect similar 40%+ performance loss compares to for example proot container through Termux running natively.

The only thing this could probably offer would be giving you better OS GUI Integration into Android, like Crostini on a ChromeOS device. But if that is needed you might as well just use an Android port or an Android equivalent of your Linux software anyway, it's not like you'd ever want to run Matlab, GIMP or OpenFOAM on your Android phone with its tiny screen anyway LMAO

Which is awesome, but then it shouldn't cost this much.

Unless if it's made of some of the actually ultra high performance plastics, like maybe polycarbonate or carbon fiber reenforced PA-6/PPA for example, but I highly doubt that's the case

Only purchase devices you can unlock bootloader and root, then bypass this with an Xposed module that hooks into Package Installer like how you would bypass Google's stupid minimal SDK version requirement for side-loading that's already enforced for years.

Google has made it absolutely clear that for years there's absolutely no reason you should ever use an Android device without root anymore than you should use a personal Linux device without sudo lol

I'm sorry but what is making you think social stereotypes in the US are not prevalent for the same reasons social stereotypes are prevalent in Germany?

Not last time I checked, and it does seem like bypassing Google's new developer verification restrictions for installing apk packages via ADB should remain an option after it gets enforced.

But that's besides the point, you should NOT need to literally hook up a dev kit just to install a software on your own general purpose computing devices FFS

Well considering he chose to use a pyro-mechanical firearm, instead of things like social/political/legal/economical tools to accomplish his goal, seems to check out lol

Sony Xperia 1 series is amazing, fully open bootloader, takes less than a minute to root, no artificial restriction from rooting with AOSP-like ROM, and still have both SD card and headphone jack but still flagship specs of the respective release year of each recent model lol

Good thing this is at least very easy to block per-app with a Xposed module.

Although it is quite concerning indeed that there isn't an easy and explicit way for you to be notified when an app tried to do this on its own, it would be nice to have a tool that can automatically scan an app to see if it does that

Samsung only had locked bootloader in the US market because of the carrier mafias in the US having wayyyy more power than they should have, even over OEMs. They can't charge you extra for basic features if you can bypass the artificial locks with root empowered tools, or shove adware/bloatware down your throat if you can remove them, can they?

All other market's models always had unlocked bootloader, even their China/Hong Kong and EU models. Although it's still not entirely open because Samsung have extremely customized ROM, that also have Samsung's security suite Knox and Samsung Pay deeply integrated all over the place, where a lot of encryption and obfuscation were included, because they are purpose designed security solutions. So with bootloader unlock you are still going to lose a lot of core OS features (even if you don't actually mod the boot image to have root access, and just have the bootloader unlocked), there are tools that can restore some, but not all features can be restored.

Well that is, until now, apparently.

But then, on the other hand, Samsung devices are the closest you can get to Apple's ridiculous walled garden in the Android ecosystem, so you'd you ever want that nonsense anyway lol