Google will develop Android OS entirely behind closed doors starting next week
Google is adjusting how Android is made, with the AOSP branch moving behind closed doors, leaving the entire OS to be privately developed.
So, are we going to get any European alternatives to android?
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It's just a slow locking down to stay in control... We just need to all shift to proper #Linux phones instead of linux-by-google. Could be nice to see some European moves there. There are plenty of good developers within the EU. The biggest issues would be in funding that development and to market it properly to artificially kickstart adoption of such a platform. There are already phones made in Europe; Fairphone is Dutch, I think?
And you think Fairphones are made in Europe? They are made in China, just like all the iPhones and Google Pixels.
Fairphone is indeed Dutch, and they even make a point on their website of paying a decent living wage to all Chinese workers making their phones.
Typed from my Fairphone 4 running /e/OS
There's virtually no choice for building competitive phones in Europe. The tech just doesn't exist there. After decades of buying all electronics in China, China was the only country progressing in manufacturing. So FairPhone is really as European as it gets.
There is Gigaset who makes phones in a factory in Germany. But their phones are locked with Google play services, and they never attracted ROM development, they also don't attract the general public to start with.
There are definitely chip manufacturers in Europe. You could probably build a phone from scratch. But it would be prohitively expensive.
There's virtually no choice for building competitive phones in Europe.
Or anywhere else for that matter. Know of any good phone made in Canada?
So FairPhone is really as European as it gets.
Indeed, and that was not an irrelevant consideration when buying one. As is often the conclusion when discussing FairPhone... "Yeah, that's far from perfect but it's truly the best they could do given the circumstances".
FairPhone has been of a long journey, fighting an uphill battle. The first phone was little more than an off the shelf phone with some fair metals. You need huge volume to actually convince any Chinese manufacturers to make you a custom phone.
And they have truly gone a long way.
By all rights there should be more such production in Europe. If not existing, than startups should be planned given the geopolitical mess.
Yes, but something like that will take a long time.
There is all the manufacturing know how and the need to make the manufacturing process economically viable. That is certainly not something that can be done overnight, but also certainly something that can be done.
But the materials are a way bigger mess. The literal materials you need in order to make that phone are not available here.
You need to start with a reliable supply of rare earths, and good luck doing that in Europe (the extraction is, with current industry practices, really quite polluting).
China developed the deposits they have in some regions and we were all too happy ti never have to do that crap again domestically. Then they put rare earths under export control, so that if you want rare earths in your products (and you do, you really do) you have to manufacture in China.
So yes, we really need to have an alternative, but your next phone is definitely going to be made in China just like the one you have now. And probably the one after that too.
Couldn't someone fork Android and get a head start that way? As I understand It android is FOSS at its core.
I think you are either replying to the wrong comment, or completely misunderstanding the issue.
The majority of Android is open source, though its development is still led by Google.
That is how you have so many deGoogled versions like LineageOS, GrapheneOS, /e/OS, CalyxOS, etc. They all start from the OS version, called AOSP, and then add things from there.
The Android you have on your phone contains a few proprietary bits by Google (the Play services) which are absolutely essential to using Android the way most people do. These can be replaced with open source versions that are mostly fine (mostly).
If Google makes android closed source, we stop getting updates, but we keep all we have, and can move forward from there.
Having a good mobile operating system without Google if need be is totally doable.
But if you want to use a mobile operating system, you first need a mobile phone to run it.
And while we can totally already have a mobile OS without the USA, right now we really can't have a mobile phone without China. And neither can the US. And that's going to take a long time to sort out.
