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Android 17 is the first since 3.x to add new APIs without releasing to the AOSP

1180 points · 723 comments · theanonymousone

  1. VCFundedGenYer · · focus · HN ↗
    Android has been so thoroughly disappointing through the years. Started as a great open free form alternative to iOS, to becoming the very thing it sought to combat.
    1. josteink · · focus · HN ↗
      If Android wants to be the inferior not-open-source mobile OS, why would I not just buy an iPhone instead then?

      It’s closed too, sure, but at least it’s more consistent.

      1. pimeys · · focus · HN ↗
        Android has free and open artificial pancreas that is still easy to install and keeps us with complex type 1 diabetes alive.

        Google may just want to kill us and Apple don't even let this kind of software exist without massive hurdles...

      2. subscribed · · focus · HN ↗
        Because it's much worse (for me).

        However at this point, as a GrapheneOS user if I couldn't use it for any reason I'll go to iOS (even though I used it for a couple of years and I've been fed up).

      3. add-sub-mul-div · · focus · HN ↗
        Because (1) you'd be rewarding the entity that originated and normalized the loss of freedom that Google much later adopted, and (2) as Apple restricts more freedoms you'll still be able to enjoy them on Android for a few more years as Google remains (comparatively) more user friendly.
      4. mitxela · · focus · HN ↗
        Because it still allows installing apps with some hoops, and iOS doesn't allow it at all.
    2. fgonzag · · focus · HN ↗
      I had never considered using lineageos and the like, but honestly the writing is on the wall. Google is going straight into a closed AI device.

      I'm going to start donating to a few free android distros I guess, I'm probably going to be trying them sooner rather than later, and without AOSP support the dev burden is going to be much higher, and it probably means they'll end up diverging and incompatible at some point (not in both directions, lineage will probably always have to have Android app support)

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