Re:European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitr...
by omnimus on Friday July 27, 2018 @02:12AM
(#17623835)
This is good point. But there is possibility of not running play services. And i dont only mean lineagelineageos without play services and apps from fdroid. I am sure Amazon or Microsoft would hop in to provide competitive google alternative. I mean amazon already has android store and if microG can do it - they can do it.
That Android would be free if you replaced the non-free parts by free ones is obvious and does not make it actually free.
> Also many people buy windows license separate from their device. Google surely does not want situation where people buy google services license... they want mass adoption for data collection.
> If google starts to charge for android then i am sure there will be manufactures selling phone without OS.
None of this matters for the question at hand which is if Android is free.