If root can’t do anything it wants, is it truly root?
They previously did not use APEX but that seems to have changed recently: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/grapheneos.org/commit/7bf9b2671667828d1553c92bf4f64cc749b74d0b Regardless it will need the verified boot keys it seems so Google can’t update them, likely the devs will take responsibility to update the CAs. No idea if they will restore the user control though.
If I don’t have the ability to control which CAs I trust, things become useless fast. This is why I fully ditched chomeOS.
Google: wants to push their browser based DRM, to which they would inevitably be the ultimate controller of, in the name of “safety”.
Also Google: intentionally kneecaps the existing certificate system which is the main safety system of the web.
Gee, I wonder if the two are connected.
I heard this on the radio yesterday. Secretly ruthless is a good way to describe Google.
SHAPIRO: OK. So big picture on this anniversary, 25 years in, if you could describe Google’s legacy in a sentence, what would that be?
PATEL: Secretly ruthless.
SHAPIRO: Oh, that’s rough. Wow. Secretly ruthless - that’s even less than a sentence. Give me a little bit more. Why do you say secretly ruthless?
PATEL: Google has convinced everyone that it is this incredibly sincere and earnest company - that it’s just a bunch of goofballs making cool things. That is true. But I think if we just paid a little more attention to where Google’s money comes from - and it is almost entirely advertising - I think we would be able to see the company and its influence a little bit more clearly. But the truth is, it is an utterly ruthless advertising company that is very, very, very successful at delivering results to its clients.
SHAPIRO: But Nilay, you didn’t mention how cute the Google doodles are.
PATEL: Yeah, the - I understand. They’re very cute.
This is very true, although from what I’ve seen both sides are correct. They give very little guidance to any of the stuff they put out, see killing off stadia or how badly they have been messing up chromeOS and just let their engineers do what they want until they lose their way then it falls off. They just don’t care about that because the ad money keeps coming regardless. It seems almost like a result of the fact that google just hires talent so no one else can have it and then they just let them do whatever they want. It’s almost like there are two googles.
I freaking love the new updates!!
I love it when I can’t manage my own SSL certificates, even as root
I love not being to use the fucking McDonalds app on a rooted device
Web environment integrity is so great! It’s incredible that my rooted tablet will be locked out of lots of websites since I’m not using AUTHORIZED chrome on an AUTHORIZED device
It’s so awesome that adblock will stop working in most Chromium-based browsers
LIKE WTF I JUST GOT A PIXEL NOW YOU NEED TO RUIN IT?
Honestly the entire certificate system is a fraud. You can see just how vulnerable it is with the recent Microsoft vulnerability
I learned that Android was not open under my personal definition of “open” right from the outset, because there was no programmatic access to telephony. My first project was to build an on-board answering machine with call screening capabilities.
I used an answering machine on my landline to avoid paying for caller id and voicemail and wanted to do the same with my cellphone. I was very disappointed to learn that this was not possible, at least with my skillset.
I knew that things were going the wrong way when my Tasker script to manage airplane mode stopped working when Android required locked it away. My use case there was that lack of connectivity at the gym and at home meant that connection attempts were draining my battery and heating up the phone. Now, of course, Android does a much better job of that particular task on its own, but it still makes me cranky. :)
Everything that has happened since has only cemented my opinion that Android is not actually an open platform. I do see many of the changes as potentially valuable security measures for the masses, but I wish that it wasn’t quite so difficult for a power user to use the power of the little computer we carry in our pockets.
On my last android device I didn’t need root at all, but on my current one Google has gimped the OS so much that root access is the only way to have any kind of ownership of the device.
Even just the fact that Google’s “backup” system (which does not handle app data the last time I checked) depends on the cloud, instead of iTunes that has been able to do a full system backup to your own computer for YEARS (in addition to icloud), is honestly a big joke in my eyes.
Everything that has happened since has only cemented my opinion that Android is not actually an open platform. I do see many of the changes as potentially valuable security measures for the masses, but I wish that it wasn’t quite so difficult for a power user to use the power of the little computer we carry in our pockets.
I feel exactly the same way
Their backup system does handle app data, but only if the app does not opt out of it. Which is an incredibly stupid system. It’s my phone, if I tell it to backup up my data it better back up everything. I don’t care if some banking app thinks it’s too good to be backed up.
However, as a long time rooted phone user I know that the rooting community is always 2 steps ahead of Google so most likely nothing will change.
It’s open as in “look but don’t touch”
As a Pixel user, I’m looking into either Graphene or CalyxOS
If root can’t manage these, then who can and how?
