Post AzGikOee9VOA6P6ojo by wonderfox@fluffyfox.space
(DIR) More posts by wonderfox@fluffyfox.space
(DIR) Post #Axd70f3Aajh4iTTUAq by jzb@mastodon.social
2025-08-28T13:04:43Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
I see there's now a petition asking Google not to block sideloading apps on Android. I'm not optimistic that's going to work, especially since Google is so close to its apparent end goal of preventing people from circumventing its Play store. (I wonder if the timing has something to do with the rumors I'm seeing that Amazon is going to go stock Android.)We need a mobile OS that is not controlled by a single entity. Not an Android fork, something 100% not controlled by big tech.
(DIR) Post #Axd70gjOLF3rviEici by jzb@mastodon.social
2025-08-28T13:09:29Z
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I don't know if that's possible, it's certainly a hard problem to solve. But reliance on big tech to remain non-hostile to the needs of the FOSS community -- or even just the needs of people who want control of their devices -- is foolish. What that really means is that we need to solve the business problems ourselves, which is something that the FOSS community has generally avoided. By that I mean, we need to dig into our pockets and pay for goods and services. 2/?
(DIR) Post #Axd70i6TEv7IBa2fEe by jzb@mastodon.social
2025-08-28T13:12:41Z
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We need financial entities that hire people to do the things volunteers don't want to do, to maintain software, to support hardware, to write documentation, etc. We need to source hardware and sell hardware, and people need to deal with the fact that it won't be as convenient or full-featured as what big tech can provide -- at least not right away. And it will be more expensive because it's not subsidized by preying on the users. Lobbying big tech to pretty please play nice doesn't work.
(DIR) Post #Axd70j9LLj0bQmOTLs by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2025-08-28T13:28:53Z
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@jzb Yes, this is the solution, but it's one of the hardest possible solutions. There aren't nearly enough people willing to pay a premium for something like this, and it's much more expensive (and takes much longer) than a consumer would expect (or an investor would tolerate) to pull something like this off, only to demand flagship phone prices for less capable software and hardware.After what I've gone through I'm much less optimistic this path will ever succeed.
(DIR) Post #Axd70nHI07k2Ea8sIC by jzb@mastodon.social
2025-08-28T13:16:38Z
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It is, of course, easy for me to say all this because saying it is the easy part. Doing it is another. But I've seen example after example after example of the problems with hoping that big companies will "do the right thing" or lobbying them to do the right thing, or just hoping that things will stay status quo.For example, Sun carried a lot of the a11y work for the Linux desktop, until it was devoured by Oracle. That was nice, but it was a failure waiting to happen.
(DIR) Post #Axd70s6q2PLvDcI6CG by jzb@mastodon.social
2025-08-28T13:20:04Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
A bunch of hardware is now losing maintainers because Intel is laying people off because of its financial woes. Fewer people are being paid to package software as priorities change with other vendors. Half of Red Hat's QA team moved to other things, and there's at least a temporary gap in Fedora testing due to it. Etc.The corollary to the random person in Nebraska is the person employed by $bigco that eventually retires, quits, or is laid off and another hole needs to be filled.
(DIR) Post #Axd70xa5h4isBn11zE by jzb@mastodon.social
2025-08-28T13:24:15Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Go ahead and petition Google, I guess. It might, temporarily, work. Or read the writing on the wall--the uneasy relationship between Google/Android and people who want general computing capabilities on their phone is not sustainable. If people want computing devices and operating systems they control, and that they can trust, and that are sustainable, it will have to be done by a non-profit entity that only exists to serve users and is funded by users.
(DIR) Post #Axd7HArC6OYbzrkNfs by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2025-08-28T13:31:56Z
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@jzb Essentially, take all of the challenges behind running a successful "Linux laptop" company (not a Windows-laptop-that-can-pre-install-Linux company) and quadruple them, because the phone hardware ecosystem is just that much harder, and almost entirely dependent on proprietary Android kernels for hardware support.
(DIR) Post #Axd7Ws8BUbHsYKBBk8 by jzb@mastodon.social
2025-08-28T13:34:44Z
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@kyle Yeah, I'm not optimistic about it any more than I am optimistic we'll solve our current governance crisis and such in the U.S. (or worldwide...). Not without a complete collapse. But it's the only way. It's one of those "we've tried everything else, perhaps we should try doing the right thing" sort of situations.You definitely know better than most the challenges that await.
(DIR) Post #AzFzdZgUFYpgLVLIjg by Crell@phpc.social
2025-08-28T13:45:47Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@jzb The core problem is that any organization large enough, with a big enough budget, to produce such a thing is by definition "big tech." Even if it's committed to OSS, you're talking about a half-billion dollar a year organization, with business deals and revenue streams to protect.You know, Ubuntu.Size is a prerequisite. Size also guarantees certain modes of working. Those modes are the problem.I do not know of a way out of this loop.
(DIR) Post #AzGikOee9VOA6P6ojo by wonderfox@fluffyfox.space
2025-08-28T19:32:09Z
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@jzb we need to get @postmarketOS , @droidian @mobian and other mobile Linux distributions to be more stable, ideally as stable as Android is, and make them run on most mainstream mobile devices. that's a lot of work but I believe mobile Linux is the future that's not so far away :neofox_phone: that's how we make our phones truly freei've been using PostmarketOS for a while and it's pretty usable now. far from perfect but good. I love it, honestly
(DIR) Post #AzGikYYHM2EknYCsCW by wonderfox@fluffyfox.space
2025-08-28T19:36:11Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@jzb @postmarketOS @droidian @mobian btw I want to help out. what language and what tools do I need to learn for porting and mainlining? is it C?
(DIR) Post #AzGisZN8Bld1etoUKG by jeffcliff@shitposter.world
2025-10-16T13:59:11.666315Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@jzb so like .... #pureos? #purism