Will LineageOS, Graphene and /e/OS be affected by Google’s changes to prevent sideloading? Is UbuntuTouch or Sailfish OS promising in the long term?
I understand that right now we are in a bad place, but in your opinion, what OS do you think people who care about freedom should rally around?
Is it safe to say that Google gets away with that sideloading restrictions? Will the EU have a word here or can they just decide it like that?
Google won’t be violating the law, because they are just doing the same thing that Apple does. They do technically allow third party stores, but the devs have to get Google/Apple to sign their keys.
Epic games will be allowed, because they have money to sue. Your average volunteer dev isn’t gonna have the money, nor time, to sue.
I think most devs are just gonna publish in F-Droid and let F-droid handle it. F-droid will sign all the apps under their banner, but if Google sees a Youtube alternatibe client in there, I’m guessing they’re gonna revoke the signature. And I don’t think F-Droid has the money to file a lawsuit. (Do they?)
I think it will take some adapting of the legislation. IIRC it was a very apple specific decision. Though I don’t really know as I’m not European. So take this all with a grain of salt. The fact google is thinking about doing this means they think they will get away with it. They have plenty of lawyers to suss it out for them. Likely they will try to use the fact that they aren’t the only manufacturer of android phones etc. Unlike apple and iPhone. Also there technically are alternatives so again not technically a monopoly. All bulshit. But possibly legal bullshit.
The main takeaway is that these companies don’t want customers. So we shouldn’t give them our business.