You aren’t going to keep Android open. Respond by shoring up Linux phones.
this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2026
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I don't want to buy a new phone
I don't want to, but I will if I have to
Not only would that solve this little problem, it would reduce Google's power and remove one's data from the claws of US authorities (were the Patriot and Cloud acts let them mass track everybody using a Google product).
Just make sure you chose a non-US Linux phone.
or making a cydia-style open source repository style app store that's accessible through custom firmware.
Most online petitions are nothing more than a way to safely (for those targeted and for those amongst the authorities who support them even against the public interest) dissipate the common people's righteous indignation, by making them feel like they "did something" whilst said something is just about the least impactful thing imaginable.
(Some official ones, for example those mandating parliamentary sessions on the subject if they reach a certain threshold, might not be so, though its unclear as it really depends on the legislation around it allowing politicians to just ignore it at will)
This bullshit will require a lot more than adding your name into a list on some corner of the web in some legal jurisdiction where they're free to sell your private information.
I genuinely appreciate the cause, but to sign this, I have to provide PII, agree to their terms of service and privacy policy, and get automatically opted-in to their mailing list that I'll have to unsubscribe from later.
So to petition against this shitty tech stuff, I have to go through this other shitty tech stuff. It sucks how normalized this all has become.
here it makes at least some sense to verify that each person voted once. the mail list stuff is of course to much and should be optional from the beginning.
The number of times that signing an online petition has prevented the plans of an evil corporation is exactly zero.
There are already some movements, like #Keep Android Open that ask to contact local regulators and law makers, this petition is useful to have a concrete number of people that agree and that can be used officially
I am not so sure. It creats activity, being passive is worse. We should encourage all type of protests, even petitions.
It dissipates righteous indignation by making sure that people feel the satisfaction and the release of "doing something" (and thus not act any more forcefully) whilst said "something" is the least impactful thing imaginable.
It ultimately makes those who would do more do less instead.
Companies have reversed unpopular decisions in the past (just saw a thing about Facebook reversing some AI thing). So there may be some possible chance of them reversing this decision. I'm not hopeful but the cost is cheap, and it has a better chance of success than doing nothing
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A 24hr waiting period to use a competitor's product has to be one of the most blatant anti-competitive behaviour in history.
What competitor?
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(6 replies)
please just make an android alternative
I want a phone that isn't a closed ecosystem race to the bottom shit phone
The issue is the hardware, we already have software
All of the alternatives eventually run into the same "Will my banking app work on it?" problem. The absence of a healthy app economy is the one thing that can't be fixed by throwing software engineers at it, and it is what caused the death of Windows Phone.
Right. It wasn’t the zune guy, limited adoption, Microserfs killing the platform after 7 years or a general lack of interest, a climate of distrust after 10 years of garbage operating systems with new logos and the same Windows NT internals…
my banking app already doesn't work on my phone, because it doesn't like termux:x11 and an autoclicker i have installed for an idle game
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There are, but the market is rigged by monopolists. And things like banks increasingly require apps that won't even run on customer Android ROMs easily.
The regulators are needed here.
The problem with regulators is that they a) gladly suck corporate dicks, b) gladly opt-in for the same authoritarian methods of population control, and c) gladly ignore common sense altogether.
That is also because we let the companies get too big. We need to break them up. The market is completely dysfunctional. It is feudalism right now.
"a" has a name: regulatory capture.
Regulators have in the past fulfilled their role, they've just been hamstrung.
i hope linux phones succeed
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This feels like the last stop for this. I swear it got posted 3X a day to every other sub for weeks last year.
Am I ignoring the actual post and just looking at the logo because I own a 7 year old iPhone —also yes.
Fuck you Pichai. They should be sued.
MAKE AN OPENSOURCE STORE THROUGH CUSTOM FIRMWARE DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydia
"In August 2009, Wired reported that Freeman claimed about 4 million, or 10 percent of the 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners to date, have installed Cydia.[17]"
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