“Sideloading” does not play a role in this. All of the crapware is on Google Play.

Galaxy Store is the clown car version of Google Play-- luckily mostly unnecessary.

Funny, as someone that uses Android, sideloads apps, and is the "tech guy" for some older people, I went "yep, Google's own Play Store is full of shitty apps".

I recommend getting an Android phone (there are cheap Google Pixels out there) and try to sideload an app. Also browse the web a bit without an adblocker. I'd be surprised if by the end of the experiment you thought that sideloading is the reason their grandma's phone is full of crap.

Off-topic, but thanks for hosting all the gcam ports for all these years.

You're welcome! :D

It's always crazy to me to see this kind of smug takes defending huge corporations as if they're your friends.

It's not all good or bad, there's a security issue with side loading, as well as shovelware on the play store. However, there is no world where I would argue that these justify limiting consumer grade hardware to walled gardens.

It's less about defending and more about being annoyed with all the over-confident, uninformed opinions people frequently post in reaction to any news article on the subject.

You could start by taking a look at your own comment then.