They should focus on not letting Google kill Android.
Do the EU have the capability to fork it?
I don’t know, but I’m not sure if a government funded fork would be the right move.
Many people have their doubts about using funding for things like that, I wouldn’t be opposed to it but Europe has other problems that people might consider more urgent.
OK. So in that case the easiest thing to do is to hand out fines.
Is “kill” a strong word here? They are heavily restricting it, and it’s reversible with some effort, know-how, and compromise, right?
But killing it, I feel like they are not. Even though I strongly oppose what they are doing, don’t get me wrong!
I mean, it’s the Android Open Source Project. Restricting it would be against the interests of the Free Software/Open Source movements and I believe that’s a violation on the principles of the project in my opinion.
I would agree, but I wouldn’t say they are killing the project. 👍
These changes don’t affect AOSP. Basically if the phone comes with the Google play store it is affected. AOSP doesn’t have Google play in it.
I forgot that, thank you.
Can’t they not let Android get locked down in a few months too? It’ll almost become as bad as iOS at that point. Who knows they might even block installation of other OSs in the future.
The EU doesn’t actually care about user freedom, they just want as much surveillance as possible.
They care about European markets and ensuring those markets can compete. This is all public day to day infrastructure now. It’s about long-term survival.
Almost?
Theoretically you’ll still be able to sideload but only after going through a convoluted process.
Convoluted process where the developer of the app has to sell their soul to Google
No, I was talking about the convoluted process of downloading, not uploading.
yes I understand, but I was just mentioning that the process is convoluted for everyone involved. people tend to forget the troubles of devs and maintainers.
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The DMA isn’t about punishing successful companies: it’s about preventing gatekeepers from deciding who gets to compete. If Android users can choose their browser, they should be able to choose their AI assistant too. Competition should happen on product quality, not on who owns the operating system!
They had no reason to wait till the AI boom for this, could have done it long ago when google assistant was the only one allowed access to these things.