This year we made good progress. You know, Linux gaming becoming better, Reddit fucking up, Metaverse failing etc. But on the other hand Big Tech has or are planning to make some moves. Such as, Google’s Web Enviroment Integrity API (EDIT: they backed off), UK’s encryption bill, etc.
So what do you think of the future? I’m currently optimistic. I think the best recent event was Reddit fucking up. Obviously one of the biggest information sources going down that path isn’t something to celebrate. But it was bound to happen. I believe decentralized social networks becoming more popular is what Aaron Swartz would have wanted if he saw how Reddit was being managed.
On a Operating system/free software level we’re doing fine. Not great (still no true open source phone OS, Firefox has like 3% market share, lots of closed/unfixable hardware) but you can work and have fun using OSS and it’s not going anywhere. On a global economy level we’re as fucked as always. Big tech isn’t going anywhere and 99% of people will choose convenience over ethics every single time. We’re a minority here and always will be.
AOSP is fully open source (LineageOS fork as well), and is not compromised or license/usage restricted by some developer/maintainer’s personal whims or crybully behaviour.
As I explained in other post, AOSP may be open sourced but it still depends on android services owned by google. I have degoogled android and some apps don’t work and other apps require device registration. And of course most apps are still only in play store. We’re not that far for properly open platform and hopefully EU will get as there but we’re not there just yet.
You can get by without Google services, it is a bit inconvenient though, but you gain far more autonomy and independence, and are able to do things IRL without being a slave to their services. The best compromise IMHO is having that shitty $100 Googled (without account) Android for apps that need it and Safetynet DRM, that you never carry with you (Michael Bazzell recommends the same), while you have your degoogled/deBigTech’d phone with you as your sole primary phone. The only problem can be GMaps but OSM is equally or even better than GMaps in most instances except for the traffic nav feature.