The future of this elegant and proven system was put in jeopardy last month, when Google unilaterally decreed that Android developers everywhere in the world are going to be required to register centrally with Google. In addition to demanding payment of a registration fee and agreement to their (non-negotiable and ever-changing) terms and conditions, Google will also require the uploading of personally identifying documents[^regid], including government ID, by the authors of the software, as well as enumerating all the unique “application identifiers” for every app that is to be distributed by the registered developer.
If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project and other free/open-source app distribution sources as we know them today, and the world will be deprived of the safety and security of the catalog of thousands of apps that can be trusted and verified by any and all. F-Droid’s myriad users5 will be left adrift, with no means to install — or even update their existing installed — applications.
That fight isn’t the fault of the device. Its the fault of corporations that purposefully gimp their shit from running on anything other than “approved” operating systems and devices. Which also happen to be offered by big corporations. Like George Carlin said, “its a big club, and you ain’t in it.”
For me, that fight is absolutely worth the trouble. I run exclusively Linux in my house and have rooted every single Android device under my ownership over the last 15 years. Even though there are some odd issues here and there, figuring it out and making it work on an “unapproved” OS or device is so much more satisfying, as its a big “FUCK YOU” to locked-down corpo bullshit.