Itβs amazing how many bitcoin maxis are mocking Damus for building on iOS and recommending ... get thisβ¦ not twoβ¦ butβ¦ ONE OS! Because we all know Google has our backs forever. π€¦ββοΈ
Discussion
The only difference is you can sideload on Android and either install an app directly or use fdroid.
Neither Google or Apple have anyone's back, but at least one of them still has some ties to open source through aosp.
I've always advocated for apps to be accessible on any platform you can put it on.
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Google is no better, just easier to get around their cuckery for now. Supporting them is not the answer, we need better solutions.
Bowing to Apple's tyranny is not a solution either. Nor is censoring a Nostr economy because someone with money said so.
I think thatβs a point worth developing though. There is no βbetter option.β Google is not our friend, and buying an Android phone contributes directly to Googles bottom line, whether you put Graphene on it or not. It still signals to the market that Android sells phones and makes Google money.
There have been several attempts to make a compelling alternative and *every single one has failed*. The last example I even considered having a shot at success was Ubuntu Phone, and itβs dead.
PinePhone was never more than a tinkererβs device.
There has to be a *compelling alternative* before it matters. Android is open source the same way Darwin is open source. Nobody actually uses it in an open fashion except some freaks like us. 99% of them are just using Google Play.
The open ecosystem will never have a chance until they produce something more compelling than the closed ones do. Openness is not enough for most people, and all we have to do is look at the current state of politics in most of the world for proof of that.
Do what do we do about it?
Yes. Thatβs the thing isnβt it? What do we do about it. The issue as far as I see it, is social, not technological.
Nostr has the same problem that everywhere has. 99% of people are bad at planning. They want to have shiny right now for the money. They donβt want to pay for something they may or may not get in the future.
It took both Apple and Google years of time and billions of dollars to get where they are today. Thatβs why the 1% are rich. Risk tolerance and delayed gratification.
Relays and clients here are not financially feasible. People want it for free. So weβre already humoring the idea of ads.
The most popular Linux distributions are corporately supported.
So are all the biggest open source libraries and packages.
See the pattern here?
Society has to be willing to invest in itself before a societally free product will exist. Iβve been saying it for ages, including in my recent article. People really have no right to complain unless they are in the small minority of folks who actually fund these things with more than a pittance. Plenty of them are here, but there just isnβt a critical mass to support the work sustainably. We have 18,000 active weekly users (Nostr.band stat). Apple has 1.2 Billion people funding them. Itβs a systemic problem.
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The reason these big corporations pull this shit is because we let them. And everyone wants to beat the war drums when something fucked up happens, but forget about supporting the little guy when the shiny toy is easy. This is echoed through history.
Degoogled Android is more censorship resistant than iOS. This is because users can download and install apks directly or use alternative app stores like Fdroid. In the specific case of defending ones right to send zaps, android as lf today is better than iOS. It's not perfect. But this specific of censorship in the Apple store, highlights that at the very least Android is a more robust option for censorship resistance.
Just use desktop clients?
Desktop is definitely more free, but my criticism also applies to Linux vs. everything else.
Itβs not a criticism of the project or the people either. Itβs a criticism of society that produces these corporate behemoths.
The world is just people. Peopleβs behavior created these things.
sad, no iOS, no #[2], no bitcoin, no Amethyst, no Android
This isn't even remotely true. Android began development in 2003 and was bought by Google in 2005. The trend to mobile computing was always a matter of time. To say smartphones wouldn't exist without ios is like saying computers wouldn't exist without windows operating system.
lol, no Android nostr apps, sorry man
None of that is even remotely true and that's not how technology works. We had applications and operating systems on desktop, it was only a matter of time before they ended up on phones as similar or different operating systems and infrastructure. Just because Apple released their os first doesn't change the fact the same functionality was being developed by others simultaneously.
thatβs not how tech works, correct
but Iβm talking about growth and witnessed everything blow up here since November/December last year
Degoogled Android on the phone, Linux on the desktop. These are the most free options we have right now, afaik. I'm on Degoogled Android and I don't need to worry about Google taking Amethyst out of the Play Store as I'd just download the apk or else get from Fdroid. That's pretty robust censorship resistance, especially compared to iOS.
It's not perfect, but it's better. I hope to see a lot more open source alternatives appear, but they can only survive if users support them.
That requires people to stop being corporate fanboys and care more about freedom and functionality than a status symbol.
Android is open-source.
Unfortunately hardware and firmware is not.
Exactly and why there are other distributions:
- GrapheneOS (w/ F-Driod & Aurora)
- CalyxOS
Unfortunately, there are not many providers that will ship hardware with these operating systems, so typically there isn't technical support, aside from community provided.
The two companies I know that are working on that are Purism and Pine64:
- PinePhone with various GNU/Linux distros for mobile: Mobian, postmarketOS and others
- Librem 5 with PureOS
google doesn't have our back, fork android!
It's fascinating how Bitcoin and decentralisation has beamed a ight to most Americans about the struggles of the world.