Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification

The requirement of verification to side-load any app is fascist control. It is clear as night and day.

Shame on Google and Apple, it was always clear this was the end goal and next up is also your PC.

Right after will come the removal off apps they don't like and there is nothing you can do about it.

Stallman was right

> The requirement of verification to side-load any app is fascist control.

Even the language we are using to describe the situation is problematic. Why do we say "side-load an app"? It should be just "run a program"!

An OS that doesn't let you run programs of your choice is laughable.

I think I have an old comment about this, but there is an actual `adb sideload` command for installing an apk on your phone from your computer. Since it's from your computer and not the phone itself, it's sideloading and not frontloading, I guess. Weirdly, and wrongly, people have also started to use the term to refer to just installing apps from outside the official appstores, but that's not sideloading. It's just installing an app. It's a normal Android feature. You can just grab a .apk file with your browser and install it like you would a .exe file on Windows.

iOS on the other hand historically required a jailbreak for this. I think that's where the confusion started. Android doesn't need a jailbreak, it doesn't need root (privileges), it doesn't need a custom ROM. You can just install stuff, it's normal. I think iOS users don't realize how different Android is and they just start repeating words like sideload and root without knowing what they mean, assuming it's just Android-speak for a jailbreak. They don't realize there's no jail in the first place.

I am aware English is a living language, and if enough people are wrong for long enough, they stop being wrong, but it's certainly painful to witness.