• Stovetop@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I don’t know why this is news. Most consumer Android phones, Google’s included, require you to acknowledge a warning before the ability to sideload is enabled. Their stance has always been “at your own risk, we don’t recommend it” and we always just laugh and say “okay, whatever dude” before we do it anyways.

    • Blastboom Strice@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      we always just laugh and say “okay, whatever dude” before we do it anyways.

      The thing is for people who aren’t used to modding and you try to side-load a random cool app on their phone (or somehow they end up doing it themselves) they might be frightened and may even cancel the installation.

      • infeeeee@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        But there are also users who interpret dialogs like that the old way:

        • ChristianWS@lemmy.eco.br
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          1 year ago

          A family member always downloaded and installed APKs from the internet and didn’t know about the Play Store cause that is how you did things on Windows.

          The person is question has low tech literacy, and they were doing this for years

          • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yup. Some people try out Linux (and to some extent MacOS, although their app store is a lot less all-encompassing) and attempt to do the same thing, finding random executables online that may or may not cause issues and may or may not even be from the actual developer themselves.

            The ubiquity of Windows means that MS’s software decisions - good or bad - have knock on effects to other software, such as people doing as you say to find apps, as well as things like ignoring security prompts because of how poorly they implemented Window’s User Account Control dialogues.

            It’s not always a bad thing, sometimes it can act as a positive pressure to improve - e.g. Window tiling/snapping becoming a much more widespread feature after Win7 included it. But man it really can be a bad thing sometimes.

  • Batman@lemmings.world
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    1 year ago

    Can someone please tell Pichai that I can do whatever I want with my phone that I paid for. (Also tell him to fuck off and that he can suck ma balls)

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Be Pichai.

    Tell people not to sideload apps fOr SaFeTy.

    Find out [Insert Malware App] has been on the play store for months and tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people have downloaded it.

  • m-p{3}A
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    1 year ago

    I’ll keep sideloading if they don’t allow F-Droid, NewPipe and LibreTube on the Play Store.

  • Metal Zealot@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Could you imagine Laptop manufacturers saying “do NOT download apps from other websites. ONLY download from the Windows App Store”

    Like, fuck off Pichai, you’re insane

    Are phones the only devices out there that receive such scrutiny in the tech world?? My laptop can literally do the exact same thing but better

    • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      What he really means is “we want to take your freedom away and lock you into our proprietary ecosystem so we can mine all of your data and extract as much profit from you as possible”

      That’s why you should use GrapheneOS

  • Nath@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    I agree with him. If you don’t know what you are doing and just blindly install something off the Internet, it’s a security concern. I would not recommend that most users side-load apps, either. You have to remember that this crowd is not representative of the average user.

    Just don’t take the option away from those of us who do know what they are doing.

  • LCP@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I own my device. I get to choose what I install on it.

    Google Chrome isn’t on the Microsoft Store on Windows or macOS Store on macOS. Should I stop “sideloading” it according to his advice?

    Edit: Found more about the quote on The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/14/23960811/pichai-we-dont-want-to-allow-you-to-completely-compromise-your-phone

    “We’re trying to strike a balance. Apple’s iPhone only allows the App Store, but we believe in choice, so on Android we allow you to sideload and install additional applications.”

    I’m so conflicted about it. I don’t want people to have to suffer for intentionally or unintentionally installing garbage on their phones, but I can’t let that take away from how I use my device as well.

    • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Google Chrome isn’t on the Microsoft Store on Windows or macOS Store on macOS. Should I stop “sideloading” it according to his advice?

      Yes, actually no one on this planet should be using Chrome or any proprietary browser when superior FLOSS alternatives like Firefox and LibreWolf exist.

  • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Google CEO Pichai can go fuck himself.

    Fuck you Pichai, fuck you Google, fuck you Big Tech. I’m not doing what you are telling me, I’m not using your crappy proprietary services that are built to spy on everyone, I’m not watching your shitty advertisements, I’m definitely not giving you any of my data. I hope your piece of shit company goes bankrupt and you end up on the street, that’s where you belong to. I’m not a slave of your totalitarian system, I’m free to choose where I download my software and what software I want to run on my devices. I do everything to avoid your surveillance capitalism, I use FLOSS software wherever I can. Your business model is a piece of trash, it will inevitably fail at some point. I am sure that you will try to do everything to mislead the public and to get them to believe your lies, but not everyone is as stupid as you would like them to be.