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Google Warns Android Might Not Remain Free Because of EU Decision (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The EU's decision to force Google to unbundle its Chrome and search apps from Android may have some implications for the future of Android's free business model. In a blog post defending Google's decision to bundle search and Chrome apps on Android, Google CEO Sundar Pichai outlines the company's response to the EU's $5 billion fine. Pichai highlights the fact a typical Android user will "install around 50 apps themselves" and can easily remove preinstalled apps. But if Google is prevented from bundling its own apps, that will upset the Android ecosystem.
"If phone makers and mobile network operators couldn't include our apps on their wide range of devices, it would upset the balance of the Android ecosystem," explains Pichai, carefully avoiding the fact that phone makers will no longer be forced to bundle these apps but can still choose to do so. Pichai then hints that the free Android business model has relied on this app bundling. "So far, the Android business model has meant that we haven't had to charge phone makers for our technology, or depend on a tightly controlled distribution model," says Pichai. "But we are concerned that today's decision will upset the careful balance that we have struck with Android, and that it sends a troubling signal in favor of proprietary systems over open platforms." While it may be a bluff to court popular opinion, Google is threatening to license Android to phone makers. "[I]f phone makers can bundle their own browsers instead of Chrome and point search queries toward rivals, then that could have implications for Google's mobile ad revenue, which constitutes more than 50 percent of the company's net digital ad revenue," reports The Verge.
"If phone makers and mobile network operators couldn't include our apps on their wide range of devices, it would upset the balance of the Android ecosystem," explains Pichai, carefully avoiding the fact that phone makers will no longer be forced to bundle these apps but can still choose to do so. Pichai then hints that the free Android business model has relied on this app bundling. "So far, the Android business model has meant that we haven't had to charge phone makers for our technology, or depend on a tightly controlled distribution model," says Pichai. "But we are concerned that today's decision will upset the careful balance that we have struck with Android, and that it sends a troubling signal in favor of proprietary systems over open platforms." While it may be a bluff to court popular opinion, Google is threatening to license Android to phone makers. "[I]f phone makers can bundle their own browsers instead of Chrome and point search queries toward rivals, then that could have implications for Google's mobile ad revenue, which constitutes more than 50 percent of the company's net digital ad revenue," reports The Verge.
From TFA: "can easily remove preinstalled apps"
Wait, what? I can easily remove *updates* to preinstalled apps, (which Google Play then nags me to update every time it runs) but barring rooting my phone and reinstalling the OS (assuming I can find a clean copy somewhere) how is this done? Or is this an unusual definition of "easily"?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Same here, I can't git rid of Evernote and some other apps.
I think it's in the last Samsung update of the Galaxy Note 4. Phone is not carrier locked and never was.
I did a complete reinstall last December. Before that, with the original rom from 2015 + periodic update, I could deactivate Evernote.
Not any more.
Totof
"If phone makers and mobile network operators couldn't include our apps on their wide range of devices, it would upset the balance of the Android ecosystem," explains Pichai,
Utter fucking bullshit. No user WANTS this junk on their phone. The "ecosystem" he's talking about is the kickbacks they get for dumping a load of garbage onto people's phones. It's anti-competitive and removes power from the people. Fuck your business deals. Let people choose what they want to run.
Okay I think we should all be frank in that Google charging a fee for Android isn't some massive surprise here. The "open" nature of Android was sketch in rose color light and non-existent if you want to be honest. Google via Android has been pretty hostile to forks and fragmentation. Google has wanted to keep a firm thumb on their baby and they've done an incredibly good job at it.
When Google began moving a lot of the OS level functionality out of the OS and into the Google Play Services, that was a clear sign that Google was done being "open". Pretty much you have a Linux kernel and a Google supplied display environment and not much more when you remove Google Play Services and Play Services is closed sourced and kept under insanely strict "can and cannot" rules for its use. Of course that hasn't stopped anyone from freely pushing around the APK for it. But for legit or widely distributed variants of Android, if you don't agree to Google's demands, you can't use Play Services legally and this pretty much has ended every actual open-source implementation of Android and pretty much rendered AOSP dead in all but name. Play Services is the leash to which Google retains control over Android vendors.
I for one would just like it for Google to just stop pretending that it's OS is somehow different from closed source projects. Yes, it has a Linux kernel, but that's pretty much it and the kernel is really paired down for the hardware it runs on. Outside that, everything else in Android, pretty much the other 90% of the OS is closed sourced. I'm seriously shocked that they haven't put more steam behind Fuchsia and the replacement for the Linux Kernel. It's no surprise that no one in Google really likes working with the Kernel devs anymore. They're cantankerous and capricious on their best days and devs at Google would like to think that they've got better things to do than to argue why their patch should go mainline.
Google propped itself up on actual "open" but now that they are where they are, they're more than happy to spit liquor into the eyes of open source and move on. I'm just tired of them pretending to give a damn, I'd actually have a bit more respect for them if they'd just be frank about it and pull the plug on being "open" or "friendly" to developers. They are neither at this point and they have so much money they don't give a damn about it anymore.
Google calls it free and open source but then puts all restrictions. Samsung cannot sell any phone with forked version of Android (on any model) otherwise they won't get Google Playstore. All manufacturers have to bundle Google provided apps and make Google as default search engine. How is that for an open source free OS? It got the popularity based on this and it used this as its defense against Oracle for using Java lang for app development. Theoretically, it may be free and open source but Google is using its monopoly to make it "my way or no way" and essentially controlling competitors using non-monetary tools. EU is right in restraining Google from using its monopoly to bundle all the apps. Remember, Google supported verdict against MS which restricted MS from using its OS monopoly to distribute browser.
Android is Free, but Google has woefully neglected it for years. Or rather, they meticulously worked on pulling all functionality into Play Services, while blinding the public into thinking that they are so great in doing open-source.
If they take Android non-free (what does this even mean?), it won't actually make much of a difference to the status quo. I'd hope for the EU to not take any of this, and simply double the fine if they do.
Fuck you, Google.
echo mailto: !#^."<*>"|tr "<*> mailto:" net@madduck
my carrier locks them to my phone by marking them as system applications
Here's something to try: Debloater. It DOES NOT REMOVE the application and free up "ROM space", however it disables and effectively removes it from use. The app won't run, the icon disappears from the menu, all that.
It works on UNrooted phones, although you do have to have a minimum Android version (v4.4 I think) and turn on Debugging while you're using it. Works fine on my phones. You can turn things off and then back on if you want. You can PROBABLY also use it to disable the ADB debugging feature, in which case it's either Really like your Current Configuration, or it's System Reset Time. (Oops, don't do that.)
Personally, I liked just having the icon "go away." There's only one BlockBuster left in the US -- it's a 20-hour drive for me to get there so I doubt I'll be running the vendor-forced-install app very much. Again it's not truly UNINSTALLED, just invisible. Nearly the same thing.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
You'd have to unlock your bootloader, then find an image that works on your phone, or wait for someone with more time on their hands to build a custom image based on Android, the drivers / firmware / etc. for your specific hardware (and possibly carrier), etc. without the bloat.
Then you've got to wait for someone else to reintegrate the software features the OEM put into the phone if you care about them. Shit like support for dual screens on LG displays, support for Samsung's S-Pen, whatever skin your OEM used if you liked that, etc.
Then you've got to hope and pray NFC and the fingerprint sensor work if you care about that.
Then you find you can't log in to Snapchat and you can't play Pokemon GO because your phone no longer passes Google's "Safety Net" check.
The real problem is that a single manufacturer isn't allowed to build both phones with Google Apps and phones with only AOSP.
They are certified to work with the vendor supplied drivers AND with google apps preinstalled. Google requires as part of the certification process that those must be included. Those drivers aren't all magically built into Android nor are they necessarily publicly available.
Unless your phone is really, really ancient (before about 2013) you can easily fix that.
Go into Settings and Apps. Find the phone book apps you don't want. Disable them and delete their data/cache. The unwanted apps will no longer appear in your app drawer etc. and won't install any updates.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC