Petition to stop Google from blocking sideloading

Stop using all Google products. That's your petition.

You play in Google's ecosystem, you get your control taken away; just like with any other big tech ecosystem. Don't want to play that game? Then don't use any products made by them. It's that simple.

The petition us useless. Way too many people just don't care or even understand what it's really about. To me, personally, this is the final nail in the coffin that is android. Welcome Linux phone, and if I can't find any, fuck the phone altogether. I don't need another crapple.

Do it anyways
- Why? Just to fight the next war that is unwinnable? It's like 5000 ants against one Bagger 293. Could also be one million ants.
  And even IF, which chance is already infinitesimal, they'd just start another slightly different war succedingly, which, by then, already faces lesser resistance.
  I did fight since they ditched their "don't be evil"-slogan. and here we are. I'm tired boss.
You'll need something at least a couple generations old with an unlockable bootloader. You can run Halium and UB Touch.
It's an Android kernel with a linux VM, but most things work, and it is absolutely private.
Daily Driver real Linux is a couple of years off, probably. They're just getting drivers starting to work now and battery life is a long long way off.
I'm currently trying to figure out some kind of handheld Linux that operates reasonably well and carry a stand alone hotspot. I've even been pondering, throwing a Raspberry Pi compute module onto a 7in screen, but perf is still kinda dicey and power is still a serious issue.
- Why the hassles? There are some Linux phones available.
  https://linuxstans.com/linux-phone/
  Didn't test them so far, but the moment my pixel dies I'll try them all. And I hope at least one has a decent camera.

I see my next phone being a flipphone. I don't like how locked down mobile platforms are already, and smartphones are so big now.

Netbook 2-in-1's look promising, picked one up off eBay to update my mobile rollout when all this started. ~550ish USD for a better CPU, more RAM, easily replaceable storage and battery, and actually compatible with Linux, all for the price of Google's 9a at launch. It will be slightly more inconvenient to travel with, but I'll try to fully replace the smartphone with a flip when that's ready for an update.

Google seems to be gambling that their monopoly is big enough to start strongarming everyone, but with a slight reimagining, their mobile division can be completely cut out of my life, and the replacement devices are cheaper per specs and more open to modification, so really I should've done this long ago.

Things are changing, but the people who care enough about this will change too. Still sad about it, was hoping the smartphone platform would go the other way and become more open. Mobile processors have more throughput and better energy efficiency now than briefcase laptops from the 2005 - 2010 era. Always dreamed of everything evolving into a single device where my phone could plug into a docker and replace my office desktop for web browsing, but I just don't see it happening in a closed environment like this.

I'll just vote with my feet

Like Carl?

Change.org is where action goes to die.

„Sideloading“? By using this word, you already letting google know, that they have won. Since when installing an app is called like that?

One of my bigger concerns from all this is that reduced access to users to install apps might have chilling effects on app development. It's great being able to get apps from Itch.io, GitHub, and FDroid, but will developers continue releasing there if the user base dries up? I guess apk-mirror will likely still continue, since they're ripping from the Play store anyway.

why are you upvoting this inane, useless, poser, impotent bullshit? we is petitioning evil corp to be a smidge less evil what the fuck?

exactly. Petitioning those who have already demonstrated that they don't care unless you have leverage is meaningless.
use leverage, in what ways you can. make a habit of it.

Just stop paying Google money and stop using their ad revenue generating services. Google doesn't want consumer customers anymore and want gov/mil/corp going forward, one would guess. If you have to use YouTube for some reason, adblock the hell out of it.

List of things they canceled in the last few years alone:

cancel nest cameras
cancel nest smoke alarms
cancel nest secure
make pixel android hardware inferior
make android more closed every year, removing filesystem access, deleting old apps from store, etc. etc.
Chromecast killed
google one VPN killed
google podcasts killed, and that is just a simple app that plays rss fed mp3 files hosted on third party servers!
google music killed

Most of this list is Google slowly exiting the consumer space

https://killedbygoogle.com/

Chromecast is kil?
Also, Google Music? I thought they had YouTube Music. I do remember Google Play Music (RIP collections of songs and albums by rather big artists I purchased for 0 Monies about 10 years ago and could download as files but have since lost)
- A chrome cast killed my parents.

Google will not acknowledge any Petition.

The only real solution is to install an Alternate Android or Linux Phone OS

The number of available unlocked phones is shrinking and even the new ones are running old hardware.
I want something with a recent processor, a good camera, GPS, Tailscale, 18 hours of battery life a good enough browser to get to my bank and edit photos and a watch that gets a few days of run on a charge and i'd like to have enough admin access to code turning on and off radios and services based on location and relatively good security.
Linux is not up for this yet, postmarket is moving quickly, but it's still way behind
Hallium+ubuntu touch is fragile if you change the image.
Graphine and Lineage have security third and a questionable future if android upstream goes to shit.
- I think we're watching a major shift happen, similar to when smartphones took over. At the moment, I can't see the market ever opening back up the way it was, because apparently smartphones are produced at a loss. If there's really no way to manufacture them at a reasonable cost, they're never ever gonna let go of the hardware control ever again. The last couple decades were just a long con to grab market share, now we're in the late stage where they lock down and grab as much data as possible, laws be damned.
  I just spent too much time writing another comment on this post, but I have the same wants as you:
  recent processor, a good camera, GPS, Tailscale, 18 hours of battery life a good enough browser to get to my bank and edit photos
  I really think we're watching the smartphone era fade away for tech-minded people, and it's time for us to just ditch the expectations and let go of the all-in-one convenience. Phones for talk/text, dedicated devices for everything else. Most of these specs you mentioned can be exceeded in a compact touchscreen 2-in-1 netbook, for about the same cost as a flagship phone, and be fully compatible with Linux. Currently tablet sized, almost small enough to fit in a purse, but hopefully smaller variants come around in the future.
  Only issue is GPS and camera. Phone GPS modules aren't very precise as it is, hopefully we get a compact USB receiver someday. And cameras never really made sense in a phone to me. Loved the convenience, and I will miss them dearly in my future phones, but a cheap digital camera will beat all but the high end flagship phones, both in price and image quality.

Wouldn't it be better to petition a political power.. Such as the EU or the UK parliament?

This is already sorted out by law in the EU. Now they just have to wait for Google to follow up on their intent.

The best thing would be to stop using google services but many (most?) banking apps refuse to run on phones without Google’s blessing. It’s fucked up and should be illegal

Don't use banking apps. Use banking websites. And if your bank does not allow you to do everything on the website, change banks. I did.
- can't, without 2fa from the banking app on my phone.
- I am about to check/do this. Problem is the national ID system, based on apps that work the same way.
My banking app works without google :)
- Which ones ?
That would be the best thing, but that's a really tall order.
The only product capable of handling what they're doing is Apple and they're just as locked down, if not more.
The Linux phones aren't really there yet, and the Halium-based models are unpleasantly locked down as well.
The mobile market is really stagnant. We need some fairly recent hardware with open software on it, but even if the market was ready to buy, the software is nowhere near ready to fill the need and the hardware is becoming less available by the day.

On the one hand I support this wholeheartedly. On the other, this may be the fuel finally needed to push a Linux phone or two more mainstream. I'm conflicted.

Use of non-play store apps is not mainstream enough for Linux phones to get more than a little bump from this.
- At this stage, it helps when more devs are motivated to switch over and build/improve stuff to cover the things they want to do with a phone. And there's relatively many devs among those who use F-Droid.
  I'm not technically affected by Google doing l this just yet, because I don't use the Play Services, but with that move coming after they encroached on Custom ROMs twice, I can tell that I need an exit plan. And there's nothing quite for motivation than slowly being backed into a corner.

Honestly? even if we succeed in this , Google will simply fuck things up in something else, the only real solution is that it completely looses people acceptnace , and that's the hardest part because the majority don't think about changing things if it's comfortable enough

Like shelving Android completely like so many of their successful products?
- Kinda, or any action that pulls the rug enough so that Google makes concessions because it can't use its privileges as a corporation , but it's hard to see this happening now

The only way to apply any pressure is to make them lose marketshare.

You're literally going to need a large consortium of "public interest technologists" (Something like Futo plus Graphene on steroids) to get together and bankroll the manufacture of new hardware that supports something similar to the Google Titan M2, plus unlockable and relockable bootloader. As I understand that will be no small feat because of the engineering required, and because all device vendors are competing for fab and production line space with all the other established device manufacturers.

Then you need robust degoogled OS options, likely based on AOSP, that can pair with that hardware.

Not defending Google but I have a but (no typo - although I'm the proud owner of a double t version as well. But I digress.)

Google is not getting rid of sideloading. They are implementing a registration process for devs and then do a check if they have the info on record before allowing an app to be installed. It is possible for you to download an APK from wantsomalware dot com and install it as long as the developer registered with Google - as all the malware dipshits will manage to do on burner accounts, which will not curb the spread of malware, which is their stated aim. Technically, your bank could distribute its app on its website as long as they registered with the Goog. But it will render abandoned projects uninstallable and that's the rub.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like this either. Twisting their words though isn't helping either.

Corey Doctorow pointed out that it is mad that we call it sideloading. Installing an APK is the same, whether it's coming from Play, F-droid, or the dark web. There should not be this distinction. Lobby your politicians on this matter. G will not GAF about this petition - it's PR for the cause at best. Only the tag team of legislature and judiciary can set this right.

If it was about security, you could add an alternative signing authority from another org you trust to verify software. This is about giving them the ability to “turn off” revanced and other apps they don’t like regardless of where they are downloaded.
I think your definitions don't quite match common use. When people think about sideloading, they think about installing apps from a third-party source that are not approved by the primary vendor. That's precisely what Google is going to block.
You also mentioned that the rub would be that abandoned projects will be uninstallable. That's true, but that's vastly understating the problem. The real problem is not that abandoned projects will be rejected, because they would phase out due to version upgrades within a few years anyway. The real problem is that programs that would take power or money away from Google are guaranteed to be rejected or delayed for bullshit reasons. And even if they are initially accepted, Google can always pull a Darth Vader and reject them later, as soon as they feel threatened. And all of that shouldn't be happening at all on an open source operating system on a cell phone that we purchased when we're controlling it ourselves.
This is also an imperialistic move. What happens if someone from Iran or Palestine tries to create an account on Google's server? Will they be blocked as a terrorist? I think maybe they will. So then the only software that's allowed to run on Android phones is going to be software that's approved by Google, which is subject to pressure from the United States government. But we don't even have to go that far to find the badness. If a marginalized group has a software developer who wishes to remain anonymous that creates a perfectly good program that will help out that marginalized group, by Google's new rules they won't be able to distribute it.
That's the real rub. All of that. Google's strong desire to gain as much control over its own applications as Apple has on the iPhone. This is a massive grab for money and power, and we should never think of it as some minor thing that might mildly inconvenience abandoned projects.
- I think your definitions don't quite match common use. When people think about sideloading, they think about installing apps from a third-party source that are not approved by the primary vendor. That's precisely what Google is going to block.
  See the end of my pervious comment. The fact that we call that "sideloading" in common parlance is a magic trick Google has already played on us and we ate it up. Resist.
  The way I understand sideloading is installing an app through a way that isn't Play. So F-droid - as one example - is sideloading because you need to go through the overly dramatic warning messages to enable the install from unknown sources. If all the devs in F-droid's repository theoretically registered with Google, nothing will change. The only difference is that Google wants to know who made it. They make it harder and shittier and thus limit our choices, yes. But they don't block everything outright.
  The problem arises for apps, whose developer doesn't want Google and by legal extension the American judiciary to have access to their information. That's a privacy concern that I find very concerning too. I'm not defending Google's choices here. I hate it. I also don't like the inevitable hyperbole going the other way.