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[-] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I think that, with the current state of OSes like Windows and Android, there should be some minimal amount of friction to enabling installation of non-vetted apps. Maybe some switch that can't be enabled accidentally, or without understanding that there's risk involved (or at least a switch that can be disabled and password protected) for the sake of children or the elderly.

On the other hand, though, an OS should be built with enough security and sandboxing that no single application can brick your entire device without at least tapping through and giving it a ton of permissions; which means that the only remaining risk to the end user would be access to disinformation or other harmful content, or the risk of personal information exfiltration (i.e. phishing). At that point, a simple block list (or even just an allow list) maintained by a trusted guardian or third party would be sufficient to keep children or the elderly from harmful content, and whoops we've just invented the internet again.

I am once again begging for Boot2Gecko to become a thing.

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago

Yeah I can accept some kind of "hey we can't verify this, you are on your own if you want to install" warning message, but if it prevents me then I don't want it.

[-] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 0 points 1 month ago

I don't know about you, but my Pixel 6a already does this. When I go to install an APK not from the app store directly it warms me, requires me to acknowledge that the APK was downloaded through Firefox, and acknowledge what permissions it is requesting.

[-] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Yes, the problem is that Android is talking about requiring developer verification at install time; as I understand it, without allowing an override.

[-] qqq@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Boot2Gecko is a thing: it's called KaiOS. It targets lower tech devices though and is just as locked down as Android, potentially even more actually.

I'm interested: why do you want it? I'm not a big fan of the idea of web development being the standard

[-] boonhet@sopuli.xyz -1 points 1 month ago

I, too, hate web dev being the standard. It's inevitable though. Mostly OS agnostic, easy to learn, etc.

[-] qqq@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

I don't see why it's inevitable at all. Browsers are incredibly useful and will always have their place, but they don't have to be everything. Why would you say it's inevitable? There are plenty of other OS agnostic frameworks on which to build programs, and not everything actually has to be OS agnostic imo. I don't write anything with Windows in mind :)

[-] boonhet@sopuli.xyz -1 points 1 month ago

If you write desktop software and don't ship a Windows version, that's like 90% of users you're missing out on. Android vs iOS you lose half. Not everyone wants to learn C++ for qt and by the time you get to things like Flutter, might as well use Tauri and some lightweight js framework.

Not an issue if you only do FOSS, but commercial software is always about lowest possible cost to build

this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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