this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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Google will block sideloading of unverified Android apps starting next year (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 day ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

That's not exactly true. There are several FOSS mobile OSes, such as PostmarketOS, Mobian, Ubuntu Touch, and the various Android ROMs. Once it's compatible, keeping that OS updated is relatively simple.

The issues with mobile OSes are:

  • many phones lock their bootloadersl, and every phone mfg seems to do things a little differently
  • so many different phone models with different hardware includes, none of which has manufacturer support in Linux
  • closed firmware for cell modems, which have their own little OS that needs to work with the main OS; trying to touch this runs into regulatory issues

Basically, supporting a new phone has a lot of upfront work with very little ongoing work.

Web browsers, on the other hand, need to stay updated with constantly shifting web standards, they're a huge malware target so they need to keep up on CVEs, and pages are getting more complex causing performance and rendering issues, and everyone blames the browser. Supporting a new platform is generally trivial, but the ongoing work is immense.

They're very different beasts.

[–] Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Not to mention just about every "serious" app (gov't, banking, etc) check safetynet before even turning on. (Hell I've had a gov't app refuse to start because I had developer options enabled, on a completely 'clean' phone)

So emulating them isn't gonna work and websites do not always prioritize working on mobile anymore ("just install the app")

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 16 minutes ago

Yeah, YMMV certainly applies. But the good news is you can try it out on your current phone before committing.