Comment on Apple calls Android a 'massive tracking device'
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 1 year agoYes. LineageOS and GrapheneOS among other forks are some obvious counterexamples to the narrative that Android isn’t open source. Then there are the countless vendors that use it in China without Google software. I know it’s cool to hate on Google and I do partake but that’s simply a fact.
BorgDrone@lemmy.one 1 year ago
Those are missing major parts of a full Android system. Play Services is a huge one.
tiredcapillary@iusearchlinux.fyi 1 year ago
No, they’re not. You can use sandboxed google services, if you want to. Or you can use FOSS apps.
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Or your own proprietary implementation if you’re making an Android device yourself and you were lazy.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Keep digging, bud
BorgDrone@lemmy.one 1 year ago
Go buy any Android phone from a major brand (Google, Samsung, etc) try to rebuild the OS as it’s installed from the factory from source. You can’t.
Even theAOSP based Android distros like LineageOS ship with closed source binary blobs for crucial parts of the OS.
Calling Android OSS is a marketing gimmick to trick nerds into choosing Android.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 year ago
I don’t know how to rebuild shit but certainly plenty of people can and have.
There are dozens of forks of Android so I don’t know how you can NOT call it OSS.