From the article, Google can technically let AOSP still exist while destroying it in practice:
what could happen is that Google takes Android closed source from here on out, spinning off whatever remains of AOSP up until that point into a separate company or project... This technically means “AOSP is not going away”,
From the author, a sentiment I fully agree with:
If in 2025 you still take statements from big tech based on best intentions, you're a fool.
Full AOSP compatibility for Pixel devices is a huge reason to buy a Pixel instead of a 3rd party OEM. They're shooting themselves in the foot.
That is probably a fraction of one percent of the pixel purchases.
Maybe but those 1% of buyers are multiplicators incentivizing others to buy the same phone.
Yes, they incentivize another 0.001%. How is google going to survive this?
Yes, they incentivize another 0.001%. How is google going to survive this?
Tech geeks acting as multiplication factors are the people who brought Apple from obscurity to mainstream.
That was 40 years ago. Any more recent examples?
I don't agree with the other person but the closest example that I could find would be OnePlus. They had no physical shops, used word of mouth (influencers), had good marketing (flagship killer), and were relatively cheap. They quickly rose the ranks and became a mainstream brand.
Yep. Thanks to this, I'm moving to IOS with a x64 handheld. I won't need a smartphone beyond calls and tethering so, why bother. Google can enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Which? Rn, a Steam Deck, but soon, something smaller and more palmable, still fishing for something good. I'd even take something pi-based.
Hard truth: With America going to shit, the EU needs a smartphone brand like...yesterday. Germans, get cooking!
the EU needs a smartphone brand like…yesterday
Germans, get cooking!
Maybe Google is comfortable enough offering the Pixel as a typical consumer device now, instead of a developer one. They used to be able to differentiate themselves from their competitors, but there aren't many competitors left.
Of course they are. They always did. The entire ecosystem is so closely tied to google services that it's almost impossible to use the phone without them (if you want to use banking and security apps). For now the only alternative is iOS and I'm starting to doubt if mobile Linux will ever become usable.
iOS isn't any better. I'm looking to OnePlus and maybe LineageOS. Hopefully GrapheneOS isn't dead.
Lineage os and graphene os are both based on AOSP, no ? How to expect these projects to survive if AOSP becomes closed source ?
What worries me the most is the support for our phone. Constructor provides bad to average support for new android versions. Meanwhile, these projects can last for a long time. I have a one plus 7 pro and it is running on YAAP, receives OTA security updates every month and all the major versions of Android. Killing AOSP will lead to killing long term support of our phone.
Where, exactly, do you think the source code will go for aosp? It'll just get forked. See ZFS and openzfs, or Solaris, and illumos.
You are right that it will continue, I was too dramatic. However the big advantage of AOSP is to have a solid common base.
Hope and fairy farts mostly. I'm assuming they'll branch out from what they have now if Android chooses to do that. Ala MariaDB.
I think iOS is better than stock Android because Apple is not in ad business so it has better privacy protections. Its locked ecosystem sucks but privacy wise it's better.
I went with GrapheneOS because it's fairly large user base means that it will last longer than other, less used mods. But in the end it will only survive for as long as Google let's it.
It's not. iOS has just been awful for a long time and since it hasn't been downgraded in recent memory and some people take that as a positive thing.
iOS does not have better privacy protections. Privacy is more than putting the word Privacy in an ad. French Regulators fined Apple millions for illegal data collection AND they're still being sued by multiple orgs. In fact, you have no choice to opt out of the collection, only to opt out of it being used for personalization. Android has more granular controls over every permission. Until they really pull the plug GrapheneOS and others still count on Androids side as well.
Apple was cool before the iMac in '98. After that they've been drumming their products down. There is genuinely no advantage. "It just works" except it works less than my windows machine. "It's more Unix like" Windows has WSL now. "Muh Enclave Chip" TPM is better. Both collect your data.
Anyone who prefers or likes Apple products does it because of vibes and appearance rather than anything with technical.
I do want to add, Android beating iOS in privacy isn't a high mark. It doesn't mean Android is good with privacy.
Electronic Frontier Foundation doesn't agree with you: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/apples-apptrackingtransparency-upending-mobile-phone-tracking
"Looking ahead, the mobile operating system market is essentially a duopoly, and Google controls the larger part of the -opoly. While Apple pushes through new privacy measures like ATT, Google has left its own Ad ID alone. Of the two, Apple is undoubtedly doing more to rein in the privacy abuses of advertising technology. Nearly every criticism that can be made about the state of privacy on iOS goes double for Android. Your move, Google."
I trust EFF more then I trust you, sorry.
I trust ads more than I trust them being sued for millions by regulators across the globe.
No wonder you ended up with an Apple device. Lol.
As I said, I'm using Graphene OS. I think you're confused about it the same way you're confused about what EFF is and who is fighting Apple and why.
And I think you swallowed one too many Apple ads.
This is the reason why I'm not a fan of permissive licenses.
This is the reason why I’m not a fan of permissive licenses.
If Google is the sole copyright holder, a copyleft license would change nothing because they still have the option to change the license going forward.
That is actually a fair point, but I assume out of the millions of lines of code, not all of them come from Google, right?
That would requiere convincing the copyright holders of those lines, or at least rewrite them. The latter I don't see it impossible, but it would take time.
Still, I will always rather a strong copyleft license...
They'll just do an Apple and publish the source to the bits they have to while keeping the bits they don't closed source making the os as a whole closed source.
So, basically what they're already starting to do?
I don't understand.
also I thought Apple builds upon BSD style licensed stuff, while Android is on Linux which is gpl?
This myth needs to die. The only parts of BSD that Apple used for iOS/osx, were from bsd4.4 (released in like the 1990s). And even then it was only parts of the user space.
The kernel is a completely different beast.
Doesn't matter for a distribution, Apple historically also shipped some gpl tools like bash and Samba, they just provide the source for what they have to.
They planned so from the start.
Soooo, that means that android is fucked but custom roms should be able to continue from android 15, not?
The more time goes by, the worse the divergence will be. (I think this is basically the idea, but correct me if I'm wrong:) Right now, we might have GrapheneOS 15 vs Android 16. But eventually, there will be an Android 17 and an Android 18. GrapheneOS developers will either have to trudge along with an older OS, or hire more developers to recreate the missing pieces of the code - pieces Google has already created but will never release . The missing pieces will get bigger and more significant. Android 15 will age out of security updates.
This is pretty bad.
How will Samsung/OnePlus use Android 17 and 18?
Those companies have always developed some of their own, "hardware-specific" software and never released the results to the public either.
(Correct me if I'm wrong here, but that's probably why pixels of the past have had really good ROMs, while phones from other companies are lucky to get LineageOS on them.)
That's not what I meant. Will the other OEMs have to pay Google for using Android 17 (since it's not open-source anymore) ?
To use the word "Android" on their devices, they already have some kind of backroom deal with Google. Nobody really knows what that deal entails, though. It would take a(nother) lawsuit to find out.
AFAIK (I may be wrong), you have to pay google for bundling Google Play Services on your phone. For example, Purism probably does not pay Google anything because it only uses AOSP + it's own suite of services. However, Android 17 will be a bit concerning. Let's wait till we get a bit more clarity.
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