Android
DROID DOES
Welcome to the droidymcdroidface-iest, Lemmyest (Lemmiest), test, bestest, phoniest, pluckiest, snarkiest, and spiciest Android community on Lemmy (Do not respond)! Here you can participate in amazing discussions and events relating to all things Android.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules
1. All posts must be relevant to Android devices/operating system.
2. Posts cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
3. No spam, self promotion, or upvote farming. Sources engaging in these behavior will be added to the Blacklist.
4. Non-whitelisted bots will be banned.
5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.
6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.
7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.
8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.
Community Resources:
We are Android girls*,
In our Lemmy.world.
The back is plastic,
It's fantastic.
*Well, not just girls: people of all gender identities are welcomed here.
Our Partner Communities:
view the rest of the comments
It's not forced, though? I have never had an issue opening Google Play and installing Firefox (and then uBlock Origin). If users are too stupid/lazy to change defaults that's on them. Hell, it couod be worse - it could be like Microsoft where they shove Edge and "news & interests" which are chock full of editorialized ragebait headlines, each one that includes it's own special comments injection that all just help trick stupid people into voting right-wing.
Nothing of what's written about in the article is "on the user".
I still don't see the big deal, takes seconds to drag them into the bin and move on. There are far bigger problems that they should be going after - irreplaceable batteries, locked bootloader, lack of root access on a device you own would be three of the biggest ones.
When you recall that, as a person who knows what a browser is, you'll likely be in the global minority, you'll realize it's a tremendous deal.
And don't even pretend that running an Android phone without a GooglePlay store is easy :P
You will find that all those issues, in the end, come down to the same anti-trust problem - single companies being allowed too much control and too much vertical integration. Regulating small issues away piecemeal is pointless when the question "Why should a single entity even be allowed to, at the same time, control OS development, browser development, package management gatekeeping and thousands of other different things?" looms in the background.
A big part of the problem is this constant catering to the dumbest users. I really wish companies would fucking stop that bullshit. Force people to get smart instead of dumbing down software to the point that it doesn't do much if anything.
It's intentional enshitification under the guise of "UsEr FrIeNdLiNeSs" and it's been a trend for at least 25 years now.
Have you ever watched all the stupid crapware Google pushes on setup? They force-install 12-20 garbage apps that you then have to go delete. Even then, a user can't delete Chrome, they can only "disable" it - which Google can reactivate whenever they choose. (Although, one could also argue since they can arbitrarily push apps onto phones, does it matter? Like when they pushed "Android System SafetyCore" without consent.)
Google is malware at this point. Not that Apple is any better. Smartphones have all just become this terrible thing at this point, where you're just renting a pile of software that you get to use in exchange for the company harvesting everything you do, and they change the terms whenever they want, without your consent.
I would certainly argue that there is a problem with non-critical apps being labeled as "system apps" and being undeleteable. This was only made worse by dropping SD support.
That said, I am still mostly able to use my pocket computer as a pocket computer, which is far more than I can say about the state of iOS, and just whining about Chrome and Google being packed in is such a non-issue when they are replaceable.
I would much rather see a fight that pushes to force unlocked bootloaders, the ability to delete any apps, a way to get end users root access, etc. There's no reason why a phone shouldn't be seen the same as a computer.
You actually can't force feed people. It's very simple to throw up and eat something else.