Comment on Google's plan to restrict sideloading on Android has a potential escape hatch for users
EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks agoThe issue people have with making the distinction is that Google is trying to spin the narrative and make side loading seem like a dangerous and bad thing to the average user base who don’t know any better.
They’re taking umbrage with you agreeing that quantitative usage of a storefront makes something simply installing vs side loading a program. Because it helps Google’s narrative in a way.
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
I understand exactly what people think the issue is. I don’t understand or agree with any of the logic. Google did not invent the term. Apple did not invent the term. There’s nothing in the term itself to imply anything nefarious. It’s nothing but a word used to describe apps installed from outside the default store. When 99-100% of users are all installing exclusively from the default store, it makes sense to have a term that describes that.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Installing software without a store was just called installing software.
Sideloading is when you download from the side, e.g. downloading software from a separate device instead of from the internet or physical media.
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
It isn’t.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Why do you think it’s not?
EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Google is twisting the word to justify their purpose of preventing people from installing anything that isn’t from their walled garden. So anything that sounds even close to support for that motive is going to be met with pushback, even if it is a word that existed before Google’s use of it. Google’s implicitly saying that installing something from anywhere other than their store is something nefarious or otherwise bad/risky. Google is trying to perform the same kind of security theatre as the US with the NSA at airports.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter to me where you install an app from because you’re simply installing it. Whether that’s from Google’s storefront, Apple’s, or somewhere else, you’re installing an app. The circumstances where I’d need a term to specifically say that I’m installing an app from outside the default app store would also be covered by simply saying “I got it from GitHub (or wherever).” It takes the same energy to answer the question of where you got it from regardless of whether you say that you installed it or you side loaded it.
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
How is it being twisted? They’re using it in exactly the way it is intended to be used?
EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
By justifying getting rid of it as “security concerns”. This is the first time the average user will have heard the term, so it will be linked in their head to this and therefore as risky/dangerous and they won’t question why Google would want to make it harder, if not impossible, for people to install apps or other software without Google’s explicit permission.
The walls around the garden get taller, and those inside won’t question why there aren’t any doors.