this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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Android

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[–] lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com 50 points 2 days ago (3 children)

We kind of need the Linux Foundation or Fairphone or similar to fork android or create a solid base for an alternative. Otherwise, we are screwed.

[–] Fairgreen@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Fairphone is already collaborating with a fork, /e/OS

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I don't see that happening since the Linux foundation gets a bunch of funding from Google

[–] lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes, but Google is probably happy to host their whole datacenter infrastructure on Linux and won't have to buy expensive Windows server licenses and wants to keep it this way.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip -1 points 2 days ago

Windows can't remotely keep up with Linux or even BSD

Ah yes, let's host a website on IIS

[–] atcorebcor@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Wtf? So Google has basically “bought” the only competitor that isn’t big tech

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The Linux foundation isn't a competitor at all. It gets all of its funding from big tech

They don't develop something unless it is useful to these companies.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

They don't develop something unless it is useful to these companies.

they fund development for the servo browser. who is that useful for as of now?

[–] CaptainHowdy@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't think the Linux foundation is doing any development themselves. Linux is open source, so anyone can contribute. I think the Linux foundation is like a legal entity and marketing kinda thing. I could be wrong about this though.

[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

The individual members of the foundation most certainly do linux dev, which benefits their specific company. Think kernel or driver adjustments or supporting newer hardware for servers/datacenters.

However, that doesnt mean its only the foundation doing the work, thats just the paid work being done. The rest is all passion projects of people

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 5 points 2 days ago (3 children)
[–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

AFAIK, LineageOS is not a fork but a version of Android that is built on top of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah we're boned, Everything we have Android like is AOSP based and as the changes happen, keeping them at bay will become unsustainable. Lineage, Graphine and Calyx are all AOSP based.

For now, it will likely be pretty easy for any of the forks to circumvent this particular change. I'm more worried about the future, it wouldn't be hard for them to start pushing store APK's to require proprietary hooks, there's a good chance that eventually people won't want to keep around Google and non Google versions of apps.

So you have Halium+VM for ~ ubuntu touch (still android drivers, but private)

Or postmarket derivatives, which is real linux, but is barely functional and has miserable battery life.

We're playing catch up for linux and we can get there, but available phones are super limited and none of the contenders are solid daily drivers yet.

Biggest problem I have is there's no good way to run Signal. If you do it in Halium under waydroid it eats power and getting it to run/keeping it updated under arm/linux is a part time job.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Luckily this shit (Google Play Protect) is in Google Play Services not AOSP.

The actual big change coming to AOSP is that development is going to start happening behind closed doors. You get the updated code when the new version is released, instead of seeing commits as they appear on the master branch. This might make it harder for the custom ROMs to keep up at all.

I’m more worried about the future, it wouldn’t be hard for them to start pushing store APK’s to require proprietary hooks, there’s a good chance that eventually people won’t want to keep around Google and non Google versions of apps.

If this results in a noticeable decrease in apps available on 3rd party stores, this might be cause for some nice EU action, like they did with Apple. But I'm not too hopeful.

[–] jcarax@beehaw.org 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I imagine it would be the likes of Graphene, Lineage, Calyx, and some others at the core. Probably some hardware vendors like Fairphone, Shiftphone, and probably a Xiaomi or Huawei.

Edit: ROMs maintain their own code base, but I'm pretty sure OP was talking about a larger fork of AOSP. That's what I've suggested recently, anyway.

[–] nameisnotimportant@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

LineageOS has a great offering but you have to wait until your phone gets outdated because even hoping that it'll be compatible with your model

[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

No you dont. Lineageos supports a lot of phones that are still supported by their manufactures. Hell my fp4 is still in support too, and lineageos runs fine on it :p
Youre thinking of unofficial lineageos builds and ports to non-supported-by-lineageos phones