You've always been able to side load apps you are correct.

However, this is not what Google wants. Over the years, Google has started to enforce more restrictions on third-party applications. They've been slowly making these options more difficult to find in the settings of certain OEMs. Just because they give you the freedom, doesn't always mean they care.

But yes you are correct that Apples monopoly on their app store is way worse. But Google would absolutely remove more user choice settings if certain things like the GPL didn't stand in the way of the Android OS.

If Android had never been open-sourced, they would absolutely not have any options for third party installations mark my words.

They only thing standing in their way is Linux and the GPL.

Google is just as malicious as Apple. They are just better at hiding it.

Here's a harsh truth and a reality some tech users need to wake up to.

Google has never cared about open-source. They have never cared about user-choice/user freedom. They could easily tomorrow make Android closed-source and that would be the end of Android. It has always been about control. Apple got that authoritarian idea correct long ago by locking down the entire OS.

Google is allowing open-source modding only because there's a large community out there that cares and wants it to thrive. And since it runs on Linux, it would make Google look VERY bad if they removed bootloader unlocking, open source, removed features that causes issues for custom roms.

Google doesn't care you YOU. If they really cared, they wouldn't be slowly removing features or adding anti-user features that in the long run, don't benefit anyone but them.

I'm glad the government declared them a convicted monopoly. I'm still ashamed it took them this long to finally go through with it.

What an insane world we live in.

Because the core reason is about control. They don't want users to have the option or freedom to install an OS of their choice because it could hurt their "precious" revenue

I am more than aware that not everyone can afford buying high priced phones right out. I should have clarified that in my post

I sent the FTC a letter asking them to look into the practices of bootloader locking. They did they they would consider looking into it

Don't feel bad for blocking their ads. The internet was never meant to have that much advertising in the first place. If websites can't afford to keep their site up then they probably don't need to be running it in the first place.

If your site has to host spammy bloated malicious third party advertising then I think there's a bigger issue at stake. Users shouldn't have to sacrifice their privacy and security to view content. Also greed isn't the same as "we need ads to keep our site running" when clearly they are making enough but want more.

It's honestly insane how tech illiterate people can't grasp this privacy concept and just learn to use a damn ad blocker. I don't mind justification but at some point you have to be the bad guy and fight back against cooperate greed.

Stay strong. Firefox+uBlock origin is the goat!

Ublock origin + Firefox works and if you're on android there's YouTube Revanced

Nintendo is one of the worst companies that always want to set an "example" about the DMCA. They don't realize they are fighting a battle they cannot win. Emulators are perfectly legal as long as the emulators don't contain any code that was in ownership from them.

That being said, I'm betting some of those forks were following the DMCA but Nintendo still shut them down. This is where copyright needs to be reevaluated.

I'm honestly not surprised they haven't gone after dolphin emulator since those devs contain the encryption keys to play the iso files.

I was talking to a friend the other about about this. He said he loves the Android OS. He said imagining putting Linux on it and I couldn't help but laugh. His eyes widened when I told him what Android really was

Don't give them any ideas. They are watching the forums 😂

Not only it's a nightmare but also invasive. I don't want Google Play scanning my apps constantly. Play protect has proven time and time again to not be very effective at stopping malicious apps. Turn that shit off.

Call me a control freak but what I usually do is update my apps, turn off internet access to the Google play store and only grant internet access back to it when I decide I want to update my apps.

Ads being flooded was expected to happen. It was only a matter of when they were going to start bloating the play store.

Remember, companies don't care about YOU. They are only there to make profit.