Darth Android

I want to point you to keepandroidopen.org a very very nice petition to keep Android… well open. Google has decided to close the system and to remove the freedom to install software on your owned phones.

I understand the reason of the Big G, but given the increasing number of malware in PlayStore I do not think this move will help things going well.

If your partners are paid to sell advertisement, shit app are the norm, and malicious one are the next danger level. The true is that to avoid this you should put a lot of money to do screening and ensure quality software. But Google business is selling advertisement, and has no product culture (like Apple or Microsoft BTW). So I predict closing the ecosystem is not a smart move.

Calling “sideloading” the freedom to use your own gadget is also a bit like when in 1984 the Government tried to change the words to remove some abstract concepts (like “freedom”) to the mind of people.

So I understand the reason of Google but…I strongly disagree because this is not a good way of solving the problem.

Nowadays my Samsung phone try to install useless software at every update using a nag screen which once upon the time was supposed to be so annoying to convince you to buy the shareware product was installed on.

You can find the Hacker news discussion here

By the way, The petition logo is fantastic.