> Google needed a leverage to tie them to stay compatible to the ecosystem, Google Mobile Services (GMS) was the tool to do so. "Pass the compatibility test suite and you qualify to preload GMS".
Yeah, it wasn't even totally the wrong thing when it happened. It was something I liked because you had both the manufacturers and the carriers getting in the way of OS updates.
For example, I bought a new Samsung Galaxy 4 years ago from Tmobile. Tmobile NEVER updated the phone past the initial release, even though samsung did the next android version (I forget which exactly, 9, 10?). But even samsung had dropped support for the phone basically after that single update.
The google move to pull things out of the OS and push them into the play store was welcome because it meant you were less likely to have unfixed bugs and problems due to vendor laziness.
But of course greed has taken over and now google is trying to change Android from an open source OS to a closed source one. Increasingly making it hard for the likes of GrapheneOS to exist.
Yeah, it wasn't even totally the wrong thing when it happened. It was something I liked because you had both the manufacturers and the carriers getting in the way of OS updates.
For example, I bought a new Samsung Galaxy 4 years ago from Tmobile. Tmobile NEVER updated the phone past the initial release, even though samsung did the next android version (I forget which exactly, 9, 10?). But even samsung had dropped support for the phone basically after that single update.
The google move to pull things out of the OS and push them into the play store was welcome because it meant you were less likely to have unfixed bugs and problems due to vendor laziness.
But of course greed has taken over and now google is trying to change Android from an open source OS to a closed source one. Increasingly making it hard for the likes of GrapheneOS to exist.