Oh! I thought I had found the crucial piece finally after ~500 words, but there's indeed better news in the section after that! Thanks, I can go sleep with a more optimistic feeling now :)

Also this will kill any impetus that was growing on the Linux phone development side, for better or worse. We get to live in this ecosystem a while longer, let's see if people keep damocles' sword in mind and we might see more efforts towards cross-platform builds for example

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ryandrake 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Let's take the "W". This is pretty good news!

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Grimblewald an hour ago | parent | next [-]

That's like accepting vaders 'altered' deal, and being grateful it hasn't been altered further.

If google wants a walled garden, let it wall off it's own devices, but what right does it have to command other manufactures to bow down as well? At this stage we've got the choice of dictato-potato phone prime, or misc flavour of peasant.

If you want walled garden, go use apple. The option is there. We don't need to bring that here.

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echelon 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is not a win. This is having independent distribution shut down and controlled.

We no longer own our devices.

We're in a worse state than we were in before. Google is becoming a dictator like Apple.

	▲	rbits 8 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It's not being shut down though. The article says that there will be a way to install unverified apps.

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catlikesshrimp 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I am not english native. Is "The W" a synonym for "A Win", described as a positive outcome after a contest? Is there more nuance or context than that?

	▲	arcfour 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes, but it's often just "a W" or simply "W" in response to something good or seen as a "win." There is also the same thing with L for loss/loser. "that's an L take", "L [person]", "take the L here", etc. They are pretty straightforward in their meaning, basically what you described. I believe it comes from sports but they are used for any good or bad outcome regardless of whether it was a contest.
	▲	thristian 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I think it's from people reporting sports statistics for a player or team as "W:5 L:7" meaning "five wins and seven losses". https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/l-and-w-slang

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benatkin 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This isn't a "W", but I am finding my own "W" from this by seeing others distrust Google, and remembering to continue supporting and looking for open alternatives to Google.