In fact, my current ASUS laptop did not allow me to install Windows until I have performed a sophisticated dance to update/flash some sort of low-level disk-related Intel bloatware. The laptop was sold without OS and was accompanied by a small paper referencing a website with instruction how to flash the firmware to actually make the laptop usable.

Ext4 support dates as early as Linux 3.15, released in 2014. It is ancient at this point!

I am currently in process of "verifying" my identity with Android Developer console.

In addition to proof of identity (e.g. passport/driver license) Google is demanding a proof of address, government registration, this month's rental agreement, foreign passport... The process is stuck in limbo because months-old documents are deemed "outdated", and I am constantly threatened that my verification request (!) will be denied because of "exceeding allowed number of attempts" (!!)

It shares the same principle as silent Discord account bans and other "verification" harassment schemes, such as Upwork account verification. The excess developers — Google's potential competitors — need to be banished from platform as quickly and cheaply as possible, so that Google can peddle their own spyware unimpeded.

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/net/wifi/Wif...

Hardware can have issues, but firmware and drivers usually work around those issues. When firmware and drivers crash, you get "masterpieces" like the one above.

If open-sourcing your entire kernel is being "hostile", I don't think that there is or ever was a "friendly" OS.

(not really final, Google can uninstall your apps anytime if they are deemed undesirable)

Especially when you are facing "infected machines by the millions".

Just kidding, Canvas is obsolete technology, this should obviously be done with WebGPU

> You'll need to prove you own your apps by providing your app package name and app signing keys

Needless to say, Google will throw out NewPipe, ad-blockers and anything else that might endanger their profits. For example, Google does not allow F-Droid to be published in Google Play (distributing competing app stores is against their ToS). This policy was in action as long as Google Play/Android Market existed.

This however has nothing to do with Java — Kotlin compiler is written Kotlin, and Gradle is written in unholy mix of Kotlin, Java and Groovy (with later being especially notorious for being slow).

Good luck trying to ddos their mirrors and mailing lists.

I might be mistaken, but the brief look at code shows that the speed up appears to come from combination of async architecture (the selling point of Mold) and intelligent usage of PUNCH_HOLE/INSERT_RANGE fallocate() operations.

Surprisingly enough PUNCH_HOLE and friends have already matured to be production ready, with viable support from ext4 and xfs filesystem. The possibilities!

This change means that people who do not use Google Play or other sources, fully controlled by Google, will no longer be able to install applications on Android.

If fact, the reason why MS can charge for "nearly mandatory" executable signing is because it is not mandatory at all. If they really were forced to close loopholes, they would have made it free for everyone, — just like Let's Encrypt was made free of charge to establish mandatory encryption across the Web.

Actually, they understand it just fine. The concept is very simple too.

Before this change you could install Android apps without registering your passport/driving license with Google.

After this change you will have to tell Google your real name and home address to install anything on your Android device. This is all. It can take a convoluted form of registering Google account or a more direct form of sending Google your identity documents to confirm "developer privileges". But you will no longer be able to use non-hacked Android devices to install anything without doing those steps.

P.S. I recall that some people still believe that they can create Google account without giving Google your personal details, phone etc. This is simply a self-delusion. If Google does not immediately demand you to cough up a phone numbers under pretense of "suspicious activity", that's because they already know who you are (you probably told them yourself by registering another account elsewhere).

No, "burner SIM cards" aren't real. This is just another form of self-delusion, — this time architected by US security agencies. You don't become anonymous by using those, you become watched.

Mobile operating systems can use application-level keep-alive packets, because those can be easily attributed to individual applications: an applications receives a TCP/UDP packet during low-power CPU sleep mode, asks system to wake up (by e.g. taking a wake-lock), and the system takes note who caused the wake-up. TCP Keep-Alive happens below application level, so it may be disabled, even when application can still be reached.

In particular, this vulnerability might not overcome root permission prompts on rooted devices, because their windows are launched and controlled by the installed su app, not by attacker.

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2022/04/expanding-...

You have to update an application every year, even if it is just meaningless version bump. Otherwise it will be removed after 2 years. Despite saying that this policy is required to ensure user security, several recent Android releases didn't have any corresponding major security changes.

The "wide range of national and international media" you can access is shrinking rather quickly.