Your reasoning shows why it's so much harder to fix a duopoly than to fix a monopoly. If there was no Apple then Google would get its comeuppance. If there was no Google then Apple would get its comeuppance. But because we have both Google and Apple, we can't punish either.

The mathematician in me wants to solve the problem of the duopoly by first reducing it to a monopoly, which we have known solutions for.

We both agree that there is a speed limit and it needs to be adhered to, regardless of who it is.

The problem with Google is that it may have started at 8 over the limit, but it advertised itself as sticking to the limit but always hovered slightly above it pushing the boundaries. This has skewed our perception into believing that Google's was acceptable and we have been gradually raising our threshold itself to a dangerous level.

Now Google is not too far behind Apple that it can't catch up.

> 'Why not both' is an argument, but clear as day what Apple does is worse. There's no alternative.

'Just start somewhere, anywhere, please' is another argument.

Ironically, Apple allows alternate app stores in the EU now, while Google is moving to disallow them everywhere.

There's a workaround if you want it enough.

I noticed that reddit was setting a use_redesign (I might have the name slightly wrong) cookie when I explicitly visited the old.reddit domain, and this caused old reddit to persist. Since I do occasionally want to use the new site for image posts and the like, I set up a bookmarklet to set/unset that cookie on command.

I've since found that setting this cookie bypasses the old.reddit login page, allowing me to view the old site while not logged in. No idea how long that will last though.

When did this start? I didn't even realize at first because I use Redlib.

I actually think the menacing messages are on point but should apply to play store apps as well. Most of the people I know are incredibly cavalier about running mystery software from unfamiliar developers on by far the most sensitive device that they own.

The goal is not to prevent a Google monopoly. The goal is to have competition to prevent Google abusing its monopoly to lock down users.

There is Samsung Galaxy store.There is Xiaomi store.There was Amazon app store which failed to gain traction as it was not pre-installed but had decent number of apps. This is even before we get to open stores like F-droid.

Now their viability is a question in the long term, if Google has complete discretion over what is allowed.

On my Nokia (featurephone) you don't need to install apps, you just run them.

I think the old reddit redirect extension gets around this somehow, that has worked for me lately (occasionally with some toggling of the extension). Although maybe it's best to just use less reddit tbh

I use redlib https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib and librediret instead.

There are solutions and then there are workarounds. what we see are workarounds, not solutions.

Even in software, you can only patch so many workarounds without fixing the issue. Eventually fatigue sets in or we run out of workarounds and just publish the bug as "expected behavior" don't we?

I don't want the workarounds to distract from the need for a proper fix.

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html

This article appeared in the February 1997 issue of Communications of the ACM (Volume 40, Number 2).

Not just warnings.

I literally can't run non signed software in the job-provided computer even if I compile it myself.

- the "24 hours" is Google's first formulation of plausible deniability. They've likely done testing to hone that number to find a sweet spot.

- the "24 hours" is enforced by remotely-run code, meaning Google remains in control of it and can unilaterally alter how this works, any time they feel like.

Imagine you went to the shops, and found that one shop, while it had the goods on display, and could totally just let you pick them up and buy them, was required by the shop next door to make you go away and come back no sooner than 24 hours later. Meanwhile, the shop next door is right there, and it's open, and it has no such restriction.

On what planet do you think anyone other than the most dedicated of dedicated people would choose the shop that requires waiting a whole day to use it when the alternative has no such restriction?

> unverified developers

The developers in F-Droid are verified, just not by Google. That's the whole fucking point. Google is not the be-all and end-all, but with this power-play, they are making themselves that.

> So the "trap door" here is just that you can't buy a phone and immediately start loading apps

I'm sorry, I thought I owned the phone I bought, and had a right to decide what software I want on it whenever I want.

> fear-mongering is not helping your cause

So we started with an OS (when Google still needed to gain market share and goodwill) which was opensource. Now Google is no longer developing Android source code in the open and decreasing the "opensourcing" to a couple of source drops each year (the interval has been decreased multiple times). Google Play was introduced (basically clamping down the app store ecosystem) and from there Google has only made it harder to get around Google Play. Introducing things like phone attestation. Supposedly a security measure, yet for some reason a Samsung phone which hasn't had an update in 4 years still passes basic level attestation. And now Google is yet again making it harder to get around the Play store.

And for some reason you seem to think it is reasonable to assume it is going to stop here?

I'm guessing you've never shown up to a foreign country without a phone. First thing I do after I get through customs is find the phone store.

It is not "fear-mongering". It is an objective analysis of factual truths.

You're not wrong. I'm not hung up on the terminology, but it is better to not use their language.

Is it really that insane of itself? I don't see many people arguing that Valve is evil for requiring a Steam account to access their game library (ignoring the online activation/DRM question).

Also apt supports multiple repositories and you can add your own. The Play Store app only supports Google's app repository and doesn't interoperate.