Once I moved away from Gmail cutting off Google services became easy along with finding alternatives. Even if I use Google products like YouTube I can do it without an account with stuff like freetube to have a subscription feed locally and be able to save playlists and keep track of watch history.

So yeah even if Google products are used it becomes less account dependent, so you need a Google account less and less. And changing to a non Gmail email provider was the gateway.

And he’s very easily bribed which corporations have caught onto.

But, what happens when Google decides to no longer the option to unlock the bootloader for future phones? It’s the future that is the concern when it comes to the degoogle options available.

For the next phone I get it’ll be one with good custom ROM support and sticking with a degoogled device. But, if that too stops being an option because custom ROMs stall then hoping there will be a Linux Phone by then.

The ones that don’t sideload obviously won’t care. But the ones that do are going to have little incentive to stick around if that was the main selling point for them, and the devs for non Google play apps leave because they don’t want to hand over info to Google.

At that point why not go to Apple if Android no longer delivers the type of sideloading experience they desire? Apple is more polished, has longer support, battery life, and better peripherals.

And those types likely will push family to move to Apple too if they are jumping ship, since they might be the ones overseeing tech support for the family anyways.

Rather than degoogling telling them you will go to Apple and opt for apple services is likely the more powerful response, since that is what the regular person is more likely to do. If degoogled is used they’ll likely dismiss it assuming it is just one of those niche nerds. But an exodus to Apple is a threat that is more realistic.

Issue is that I believe even in the EU Apple is in a position where devs have to be verified by Apple to be allowed to sideload.

So it’s not a problem of if sideloading is possible, but that devs need to hand over sensitive personal information to Google to be verified to be able to offer side-loaded apps on Android. So Google is positioning themselves to fully control app installs even for non Google play apps by holding the ability to deny.

So Google is now looking to emulate the terrible sideloading state of Apple by regressing to more control by them.

Not really. What software and hardware a corporation chooses to use for their workforce is something that employees will not have much control over if they aren’t in a high enough position.

Anything provided by a company is company property anyways. What matters more to me is what is used for personal use than a work computer or work phone or work etc.

So discussion wasn’t off track. You were seeing things from the company perspective assuming the person was seeing it from a corporate position. I’m seeing it from a personal usage perspective and not corporate, which most employees have little control over and it’s not their devices anyways.

After getting a used thinkpad and being really surprised by the build quality and keyboard that’s the route I’ve decided to stick with over buying new laptops.

How many individuals care about what businesses do though? Usually they provide the hardware too, so it’s whatever when it comes to what the company chooses to use.

These are more individual concerns for personal hardware. So long live LibreOffice.

Apple method is terrible too and had to be forced by the EU to allow sideloading so tried to make it as restrictive as possible within the rules. And don’t think they bothered to support it outside the EU. So Apple is not the one to use as a defense of restrictions to installation of software om Android.

And I fear malware more from Google Play than F-droid with how they just allow anything and millions of installs give people a false sense of security until it’s later revealed it was a malware app. So no I don’t buy this security bullshit.

It’s about control and data harvesting.