Google’s Android, the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, started life as open-source software. In its quest for ever-greater profits, the tech giant has been gradually eroding Android’s open-source capacity over the last decade.

Google’s Android, the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, started life as open-source software. In its quest for ever-greater profits, the tech giant has been gradually eroding Android’s open-source nature over the last decade.

Originally published on The Lever, but that one asks you to sign up.

    • @[email protected]
      6•7 days ago

      Sailfish works quite well. Especially if you are not heavily using privacy-hostile apps (it has Android emulation, so things like OSMand or public transport apps run well). Quite neat. I have been programming mine in Guile, and I also have a Sailfish PDA with a physical keyboard.

      What you have to do is to think hard is what you really want from a phone or pocket computer .

      • Captain Beyond
        1•5 days ago

        Isn’t that proprietary? So not really an alternative, even if it is so-called “Real Linux” for the Linux fanboys.

        • @[email protected]
          2•5 days ago

          Some of the UI isn’t open, otherwise it is Qt / Wayland / pyside with stsndard pkcon / rpm package manager and I program mine in Guile.

          And the UI isn’t the serious issue. The serious issue is propietary firmware which prevents you from really running Android / whatever on a vendor phone and also that a phone does not have one but around five different processors and only the “OS” one can be controlled by your own software. An Intel Pocket PC is far better in that regard, except that it won’t work as a telephone.

          • Captain Beyond
            1•4 days ago

            How much is some? Can a usable, fully-free version be made without those non-free components? Given that the UI is the thing that mediates user interaction with the OS, I would suggest that a proprietary UI is in fact an issue.