@fdroidorg@mastodon.technology is dedicated to enforcing #FreeSoftware for #Android apps. There is big money pushing hard to make people slip, Google is one of those. I've been working on free software since 1994, and from what I've seen, this approach is the only way to make progress. If no one enforces it, then everyone just slips into proprietary software.
@fdroidorg@mastodon.technology here's a classic #Google tactic: use "open source" to get devs hooked, then gradually slip in proprietary bits. #AOSP's core apps move ever more towards proprietary, and they also do this with libraries like com.google.ar:core https://github.com/google-ar/arcore-android-sdk/issues/1538
@eighthave @fdroidorg I'm pretty sure that the only reason Android is open source to begin with, is that Google didn't create Android. They just bought the project to not have to start from scratch, so they could have any chance to compete with Apple and iOS at the time, who already happen to be a rather popular thing back then.
@hund @fdroidorg@mastodon.technology Google did buy Android, but it was proprietary then, and Google open sourced it. They were tactical, doing that to get developers' attention, given all the other mobile platforms were proprietary then. Now Android is the biggest platform in the world, and Google controls it, and they want more control. So they go proprietary.
