Quote:
Originally Posted by viceant
If the unique alternative is a chinese state controlled ecosystem... I would doubt which one to choose.
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The real problem IMHO is that there actually is no choice at all. The very limited amount of options we are presented with are not allowing us to *not* choose either. While i welcome that my A5 does not contain anything Google, i dislike that i can't decide about it myself and that i have to depend on the manufacturer's decisions. I'd much prefer to also get rid of most of the chinese preinstalled stuff.
Do i really own a device if i can't install or remove stuff as i please? In my not so humble opinion this is the typical Android trap nobody appears to be aware of. The only way to circumvent this to some degree is to root the device, but for the majority of users this is simply out of reach, especially if none of the more technically capable device owners haven't found and publically provided an easy procedure to accomplish it.
And while we are at it: There are sufficient app store alternatives to not depend on anything preinstalled. For a start, there is always F-Droid and the Aurora Store that is easily available via the former. I am very happy with this for my humble needs. Apparently the majority of users only knows about and thus prefers Google's offers, implicitly consenting to hand over more control over their device and digital activity than mere app installations would actually require.