There goes my hope for #KaiOS (a fork of FirefoxOS).
“Google Leads Series A Investment Round in KaiOS to Connect Next Billion Users”
https://www.kaiostech.com/google-leads-seriesa-investment-round-kaios-connect-next-billion-users/
Article Quote:
“We want to ensure that Google apps and services are available to everyone, whether they are using desktops, smartphones, or feature phones.” said Anjali Joshi, Vice-President, Product Management, Next Billion Users. “Following the success of the JioPhones, we are excited to work with KaiOS to further improve access to information for feature phone users around the world.”
@tinker Help me understand why this is bad?
@downey - If it’s *just* making apps for the KaiOS system, it’s fine.
If it’s Google helping KaiOS build tracking into the core operating system, it’s bad.
Even if KaiOS was going to do that to begin with, Google’s surveillance apparatus and contextualization is multiple orders of magnitude bigger than what KaiOS could have done on their own.
@tinker Agreed, and that would be bad, but I did not perceive that slipperuy slope from reading the announcement -- unless I missed something?
Google does do a lot of good non-surveillance-y support & funding of #OpenSource stuff through #GSoC and their open source programs office. https://opensource.google.com/
@downey - Here’s hoping!
@tinker
Why all the Google hate?
@ScottMortimer - Tired of being tracked. Tired of all my data points being stored forever. Tired of the contextualization, the matching of disparate data points together. Tired of the scale and the ubiquity of surveillance.
@jeff
It's a god damn broken record
@tinker @ScottMortimer
@tinker
What would William S. Burroughs have made of this horror we have created? Probably a healthy dose of "I warned you".
@ScottMortimer
@tinker Aw that's unfortunate. These big companies are just sucking up everything good :\
@tinker if I wanted to run a phone on an open source OS without Google, what are my options?
@thinkMoult @tinker not everything is already finished, but besides AOSP there is SailfishOS, @kde Plasma Mobile, @gnome is working on a project. @Purism is working on both hardware and software and I think I'm forgetting some project.
@RyuKurisu @thinkMoult - And Ubuntu Touch ( @Ubports )
@tinker @RyuKurisu @Ubports sailfish looks interesting. KDE mobile is far from polished, just like a developer preview. Haven't checked out Ubuntu touch. Do you know anyone who actually uses an open source phone?
My usecase is just like a usual phone. Making calls, smses, and apps. The apps available on f droid would be good.
Running AOSP sans Google would be good too if I knew how. It seems to be harder and harder nowadays.
@thinkMoult @RyuKurisu @Ubports - I know @ted used to rock Ubuntu Touch back when it was supported by Canonical. Not sure about now. I know folks who will run Android forks, like LineageOS.
Need to buy a test phone myself to try out both KDE and Ubuntu Touch.
Can’t wait for the Librem 5 out of Purism.
@tinker @thinkMoult @RyuKurisu I've got a Nexus 5 running the Ubports build right now, but it isn't my daily.
It is a little rough as they're transitioning to 16.04. But shows a lot of promise. If you're new to it, I would wait until after that transition to make a serious evaluation.
@ted @tinker @thinkMoult maybe a dumb question (and probably something @Ubports will be better at answering) but why not make the jump to 18.04 instead? It seems more sensible to put more effort into the most recent release instead of the 2 year old release 🙃
@RyuKurisu @tinker @thinkMoult don't know the definitive answer there, but the 16.04 transition was started by Canonical, so was probably easier to complete it.
Puts them on a release that gets security updates, so a huge amount better than the current 15.04.
@ted @RyuKurisu @thinkMoult - Forgot where, but they’ve addressed the question. I can’t remember the answer though! I do know that it was well considered and they made a conscious choice to go to 16.04 first.
Can dig through blog posts and Q&A’s if you’re interested. @Ubports might be able to answer it directly as well.
@tinker @ted @RyuKurisu @Ubports
So far the options after more research:
KDE Plasma Mobile: No. Only unpolished developer preview. Unsure what the app ecosystem is like.
Ubuntu Touch: Outdated and risky device support. Unsure what the app ecosystem is like. Anbox seems not yet released.
PurismOS: Unreleased.
SailfishOS: Dunno.
AOSP sans Google: Simplest option so far. Any custom ROM like LineageOS will do.
For hardware I've found Fairphone. It's awesome but not available in Australia.
@thinkMoult @ted @RyuKurisu @Ubports - That’s my assessment as well. At least for daily drivers. Hoping Purism/Librem coming to market will drive support for the others.
@tinker @ted @RyuKurisu @Ubports I guess what that means is that I will start looking at flashing LineageOS on my phone in the coming months.
@thinkMoult @tinker @ted @Ubports that's the most turn-key solution that "just works™". With @fdroidorg and Aurora Store (material designed front end of Yalp) will get you a long way 😎
Article Quote:
In addition to the investment, Google and KaiOS have also agreed to work together to make the Google Assistant, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Search available to KaiOS users. These apps have been developed specifically for the KaiOS platform, which is entirely web-based, using open standards such as HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS.