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A comment on Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?. Parent comment

Re:Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again? by notacoward on Sunday December 09, 2018 @08:46AM (#18640822)
> Android is free software in the sense that you can make and distribute modified versions.

I don't think that's enough to make it free software, and "free software in the sense..." is nonsensical. Free software would guarantee the continuance of that freedom. Since that guarantee doesn't exist, Google could place limitations on the Play Store at any time. The fact that they haven't makes the example less clear, but it doesn't make Android free software. Even Google doesn't claim that it is.

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Re:Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again? by ikeboy on Sunday December 09, 2018 @08:48AM (#18640828)
Play store isn't part of Android. Even if it was only available to specific phones, that wouldn't make Android unfree.

Play store isn't open source at all.

Amazon was able to take Android and put it on their extremely popular devices with 0 support from Google, no play store. That's what I call freedom

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Re:Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again? by SSLy on Sunday December 09, 2018 @03:57PM (#18643215)
Play store isn't part of AOSP.
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Re:Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again? by zamazingo on Sunday December 09, 2018 @03:27PM (#18643070)
> Play store isn't part of Android.

It is extremely well integrated into it, by design.

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