'Why not both' is an argument, but clear as day what Apple does is worse. There's no alternative.

The mathematician in me wants to solve the problem of the duopoly by first reducing it to a monopoly, which we have known solutions for.

The problem with Google is that it may have started at 8 over the limit, but it advertised itself as sticking to the limit but always hovered slightly above it pushing the boundaries. This has skewed our perception into believing that Google's was acceptable and we have been gradually raising our threshold itself to a dangerous level.

Now Google is not too far behind Apple that it can't catch up.

Stop making things up. Apple is garbage, too. This isn't an Apple thread.

It all sucks, and I'm not saying this is a good thing. But Google and Apple are both trying to position themselves as not having monopolies on store fronts, while still forcing notarization and verification to run through them independent of the store being used. And the EU seems fine with this for some insane reason. Google isn't trying to be worse than Apple, they're trying to match Apple.

Next will be USA deciding that it's illegal to use the new Chinese offerings that will pop up to work around Google/Apple shittiness, because unconstitutional market manipulation goes hand-in-hand with USA's Russian-style oligarchy.

How long before Linux is added to the USA regime list of software that 'shows someone is a terrorist'.

'Just start somewhere, anywhere, please' is another argument.

old.reddit is now locked behind login as well.

I noticed that reddit was setting a use_redesign (I might have the name slightly wrong) cookie when I explicitly visited the old.reddit domain, and this caused old reddit to persist. Since I do occasionally want to use the new site for image posts and the like, I set up a bookmarklet to set/unset that cookie on command.

I've since found that setting this cookie bypasses the old.reddit login page, allowing me to view the old site while not logged in. No idea how long that will last though.

Here's the bookmarklet I use:

javascript:(function(){const old_or_new = prompt("[O]ld or [N]ew?", "New");if (old_or_new.charAt(0).toUpperCase() == 'N') {document.cookie = 'redesign_optout=; Path=/; Domain=.reddit.com; Expires=Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:01 GMT;';} else {document.cookie = 'redesign_optout=true; Path=/; Domain=.reddit.com';}window.location.reload()})();

And the menacing messages of installed something from F-Droid. My mother would never do it. Even my programmers colleagues usually don't do it.

There is Samsung Galaxy store.There is Xiaomi store.There was Amazon app store which failed to gain traction as it was not pre-installed but had decent number of apps. This is even before we get to open stores like F-droid.

Now their viability is a question in the long term, if Google has complete discretion over what is allowed.

Google has essentially full control. Because they own security updates. Because banking apps already now often do not work without Google services. Etc. Etc.

It is a monopoly (regarding Android app developers), and is increasingly exploiting that to cash in.

They already have agreements for it anyway.

Is this wrong? Sure they have agreements but does it include "don't sell phones with alternative ROMs"? It's licensed software and I don't think the phone makers want to end up on the wrong side of a Google lawsuit.

I also heard that dev's couldn't remove apps they, for whatever reason, no longer supported. Even if the developers abandoned Amazon's app store entirely, the old bitrotted apps would still be there. The 1-star reviews would pile up, biasing users against them on other platforms.

But it's a good thing, actually because: - when reddit is good it's way to addictive - reddit has become nearly as bad as most other social media sites

So if they force me to use an account, I'll finally be able to kick the habit ;-)

But I deleted my account (or at least randomized my password) somewhere in 2016 or so, so apparently 10 years ago I decided I wanted out. But I'm still reading it at least as much as HN. So fingers crossed they screw up badly enough this time :-D

The real problem is that old.reddit.com and its ecosystem are all becoming worse and worse. Just off the top of my head, things like image galleries, message notifications, RemindMe bot, RES, /r/random, etc all have various problems and breakage.

They banned "VPN"

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/after-vpn-ban-in-k...

Then came arrests.

https://www.medianama.com/2026/01/223-jammu-kashmir-vpn-ban-...

Street level checks. Police literally stop you roadside and check your phone for VPN.

This is happening in 2026. RIGHT NOW.

I talked to some officials and "oh you know what happened in Delhi blasts? They were using signal. If we had only caught them before".

other times people share a problem and just want to feel validated ("yeah that sucks dude")

it sounds like you wanted the 2nd but got the 1st

Even in software, you can only patch so many workarounds without fixing the issue. Eventually fatigue sets in or we run out of workarounds and just publish the bug as "expected behavior" don't we?

I don't want the workarounds to distract from the need for a proper fix.

Google is breaking fdroid in less than a month left for sideloading: https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registrat...