Why the Hell Does Android Even Exist Anymore? (fireborn.mataroa.blog)

submitted 1 week ago by PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net to c/technology@hexbear.net

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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 39 points 1 week ago

This is the lifecycle of so much software. Particularly chat programs spring to mind, old chat program becomes bloated and horrible to use, new chat program is focused, streamlined, does its job as a chat program and maintains the most important part - convenience - as priority.

Fast forward and the program has become bloated. Its purpose for existing has been forgotten.

New chat program appears and displaces it by being everything that it used to be.

That time is coming for Android. With its original purpose now no longer being filled there is a gap open, all it takes is something to successfully fill it while maintaining convenience as a priority.

[-] Edie@hexbear.net 29 points 1 week ago

lea-think Hang on, this reminds me of something.

“All nature,” says Engels, “from the smallest thing to the biggest, from grains of sand to suns, from protista (the primary living cells — J. St.) to man, has its existence in eternal coming into being and going out of being, in a ceaseless flux, in unresting motion and change.”

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Wait no thats not what protista is, right? Like that doesnt seem true.
Protista is a specific thing in 19th century biology and today and it is not "the primary living cell". Its a type of eukaryote that is neither plant, fungus or animal. It is a sort of genetic midpoint with ill defined borders. When Engels wrote this it was even more nebolously defined with various competing definitions, but I believe the most common was something akin to "something that is alive and isnt a plant or an animal".

He's basically saying from tiny insiginificant lifeforms to humans.

[-] Edie@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Idk, you're the doctor or something, tell Stalin that he was wrong.

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 21 points 1 week ago

I would but stalin wont answer my calls.

[-] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago

Dear Stalin, I wrote you, but you still ain't callin'
I left my cell, my pager, and my home phone at the bottom

[-] alexei_1917@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

That seems like a dangerous proposition.

[-] alexei_1917@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago

So basically, enshittification is dialectical. Fascinating.

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

You have to appreciate the way google does it. Where they introduce an app, make it shitty, and then make their own replacement app that is slightly worse than the thing it is replacing used to be.

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 34 points 1 week ago

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Dumb phones are even worse than Androids in terms of security and privacy. Either use GrapheneOS, or VOIP on a Linux computer.

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 26 points 1 week ago

One aspect that goes underemphasized here is ad-free better versions of apps. Things like Newpipe that make YouTube work in a more user friendly way.

Securing devices against their own users has been a goal of tech companies for a while and the companies do currently seem to be winning.

[-] invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net 16 points 1 week ago

Pretending that sideloading itself is the threat is like saying cars should be banned because someone, somewhere might drive drunk. It’s bullshit.

But cars should be banned because people everywhere are constantly driving drunk

[-] ColombianLenin@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago

Cars should be banned cause public transportation should be the norm

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[-] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago

What's keeping me from using Shuziku to use root APIs to install apps?

[-] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 19 points 1 week ago

Could you point me to where I can learn what these words mean? It sounds like something I'd like to try

[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

In addition to what the king said just to clarify some of the terms: root can basically be thought of as the Linux equivalent of a Windows Administrator: a user with the highest privileges, an out of the box android distro from a major manufacture will block access to this to prevent you using your own device however you want

APIs are application program interfaces, you can think of them as software libraries full of useful functions and data structures for interacting with other software and data, examples are those used to interact with web platforms programtically(i.e bots such as the Amber one on here, use the lemmy API to read and make comments)

To learn more there's plenty of tutorials and such that can be found with a simple search, but if you want to gain a deeper knowledge the best thing I'd say is to mess around with running linux to learn about root

Or for APIs learning to code and you'll also pick up other associated knowledge and skills

[-] AMBER_BOT@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago

Amber.

[-] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 16 points 1 week ago

Shizuku is an app that lets you use root functionality on an OEM locked phone, the GitHub is probably a good place: https://github.com/RikkaApps/Shizuku

[-] Jaclope@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago

Thanks for the link. This sounds useful

[-] Bronstein_Tardigrade@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 week ago

"GitHub" and "a good place" should never be used together in the same sentence, unless it is a sentence created by CoPilot.

[-] AernaLingus@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago

Question: how exactly is this gonna be rolled out? Like, if I have some ancient Android 5 device sitting in a drawer and I connect it to the internet, will it immediately lock itself down if it has Play Services installed?

[-] Enjoyer_of_Games@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago

It won't exist for much longer.

Once Fuchsia becomes a fully operational mobile OS Google will dissolve the AOSP permanently.

The last remnants of the GPL will be swept away.

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

Tbh it seems like Fuchsia hasn't gone too far in replacing Android after that time they layed-off a big chunk of the team.

[-] muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 1 week ago

Half of the most popular android sellers are Chinese companies, running various android skins. If google does much more fuckery, they'll all just fork aosp or switch to harmonyOS.

[-] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

This will be definitely be used to ban stuff like Youtube ReVanced, and ICE Block and enforce EU chat control client side surveillance.

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

Another certified fireborn banger.

[-] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 6 points 1 week ago

If you only have one phone it’s been time to switch away from android for years now.

[-] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 27 points 1 week ago

What other OS even is there? I'm not going to apple

[-] rubber_chicken@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago

I use /e/OS on a fairphone. It's OK.

[-] krolden@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

That's literally android

[-] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago

You don’t have any serious options in that case.

You could always decide you’re smart enough to figure your own security and privacy out and use graphene but as a user of graphene I don’t recommend it for the uninitiated or for the very skilled and knowledgeable.

[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I don’t recommend it for the uninitiated or for the very skilled and knowledgeable.

Typo? or are you saying Graphene is only suitable for a narrow band of intermediate users

[-] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

Nope, I don’t recommend it’s use to anyone. A person who doesn’t understand can at best gain a false sense of security and a person who does (which I will not falsely represent myself to be) will gain an understanding of smartphone technology that causes them to either curtail their smartphone use overall or give up.

It’s phenomenal and eye opening learning experience though.

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

They're saying they dont recommend it to anyone.

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 6 points 1 week ago

Okay so I can either have the shit google option or the equally shit apple option.

[-] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago

Yes.

[-] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

You could always decide you’re smart enough

Gonna stop you right there. No I couldn't

I was honestly thinking of going down to flip/slide phone tech anyway

[-] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago

I recommend against it. Aside from gaining aesthetics and user experience (I too genuinely love typing texts on a numeric keypad) you’re leaving behind almost every security and privacy enhancement that exists and it’s truly trivial to dump the contents of an old flip phone once you’ve got it open.

[-] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

How does one securely downgrade tech, then? Using an old smart phone just sucks because everything runs slower than me after an entire pizza regardless of if it's just texting and browsing or games or anything.

I want to have phone where i can't run the proprietary apps from my work but can browse the net and send texts and listen to music without taking 4 hours to load

[-] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago

You dont. Old technology is easier to bypass and doesn’t support new stuff either because no one wrote the software for it or because the hardware isn’t capable.

We are using a vast, globe spanning system literally developed for surveillance and intelligence during the Cold War. Its predecessor, the copper line telephone systems’ wireless offspring, was augmented by an unholy alliance of technology and law into a vile chimera suitable only for spying. We have to recognize our position and make compromises.

The compromises I’ve chosen to make revolve around mistrust of state actors and service providers and led me to use an iphone with a bunch of settings changed and manual backups/music loading using an old computer.

You might be comfortable with a flip phone and an ipod (or any mp3 player, there’s just a lot of activity around the now “retro” ipods).

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[-] jackmaoist@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

Chinese Android

[-] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago

technically already have one but it's from a billion years ago

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[-] segfault11@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago

retvrn to J2ME flip phones

[-] Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

I'm itching for t9

[-] krolden@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

If you really don't want android anymore sailfish is pretty good. You can put it on supported devices however best support comes if you get the device from them directly

https://commerce.jolla.com/

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this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2025

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