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Comment by bitmapbrother | Hacker News Reader

Some People seem to think they're entitled to Google's Play Services without having to install Google's software. AOSP is entirely free and you can do with it as you please. If you want to run Android apps on AOSP then install FDroid, the Amazon App or any other free app store out there. This isn't about AOSP, it's about being jealous that they can't run Android apps that use Google Play Services and using any other app store is an insult to them. If you don't want to install GPS then be content with your free app stores and quit bitching about AOSP not being completely open. But, they want their cake and they want to be able to eat it too so they resort to complaining about Android not being open and trying to write shims to replace GPS so they can get their app fix on.

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This isn't a question of entitlement. It's like being given a distribution that has a proprietary libc and then everyone losing their shit once you start re-implementing the libc because you don't want to run proprietary code.

GPS, maps and other such features are fundamental features of modern phones. They're no longer "additional addons" on a phone OS.

Also, many apps within FDroid still require some play services, and it's only because of microG that you can even use those free software apps. For example, Signal requires GCM and the project will not consider fixing this (and in fact demanded that FDroid stop distributing binaries). What is a user of that free software meant to do? Maintain a fork? People did that, but Signal won't federate. Move to another messaging service? Maybe, but there's nothing that matches Signal right now (I'm hoping that Matrix gets there soon so I can get the fuck away from Signal).

Personally I'm planning on rewriting some of the bus timetable apps for Sydney and using OpenStreetMaps instead of Google Maps. But I don't know if it's possible to have any form of meaningful GPS information without Google's proprietary services. I'm shit-out-of-luck as a developer, not an entitled brat.

* What people want is to run apps on their phones. * Most apps now depend on google services because google actively promotes play services over base system services, and doesn't really invest in the later anymore. * Many people don't want to run google services on their phones (Me included). * MicroG solves this problem by replacing google services with equivalent services. * People can now run the apps they want.

This has nothing to do with entitlement or google. This is a way for people to run software on their phones without needlessly going through google.

Then perhaps they should use software that is not dependant on Google rather than harass developers to degrade their apps to conform to their desires.

> perhaps they should use software that is not dependant on Google

Isn't this what MicroG does?

If you're referring to the system as a whole, the only real alternative is ios, which is far worse in terms of user control over what the system does.

In an ideal world, I would be running some linux distribution on my phone and be finished with it. We don't live in an ideal world.

By your logic, an emergency brake in my Ford Escape will be usable only if I have their sync software on the system.

Gps is a basic selling feature, get over it.

By your logic Chinese cars shouldn't work at all and yet they do. Get over that.

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