this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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MicroG works really well
MicroG works well if you let it leak some data to Google.
I would like a free-as-in-free-from-Google Google Play Services reimplementation that lets me use any app that depends on it without hitting any Google server.
OP asked about Open Source not about privacy.
MicroG minimises connections to google servers, here you can read what addresses it still connects to and why: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/wiki/Google-Network-Connections
Free software (not open-source, it's really free software that's important) that depends on a single for-profit vendor is not free.
MicroG is open-source but it's not free. It fails to address two problems:
I don't think OP cares about getting the source of the apps they run so much as the apps being free-as-in-libre in his original question. Many people mistake open-source for free software and MicroG is not truly free.
(I reread ops question and I can only see the term open source 2 times, but whatever, I understand what you say, and I don't want to debate about semantics.)
The point with microG is it's still the best way if you want to use android. The other options are:
btw I'm perfectly fine without even MicroG. When I was installing my phone it asked whether I want that too, said no, and didn't fell the need to then it on yet
Huh? Which rom asks this? Usually you have to go through hoops to get microg, and only a handful of roms have it builtin. It can only ask if you want to enable microg not installing it or not, microg to correctly work it should be installed in
/system/priv-app, to do that after boot on device, you have to be root.Do you use any app from aurora or outside fdroid? If your answer is no, than you can use android without a GMS package.
Also as I wrote, location won't work for you underground or inside concrete buildings. If you are fine with these kind of limitations than you can obviously.
Marwin (the main developer of microg) said in some interview that he doesn't want microg to exist, and in a perfect world we shouldn't need such workaround. I would be also happy if android wouldn't depend this muhc on google
CalyxOS does. It asks in a setup similar to what most common phones use with their stock ROM. MicroG is probably installed, but it's services are turned off.
Yes, there's a few. My favorite music player, a local public transport app, a file manager.. such things. They work fine. I was already not touching "corporate apps" with a 10 feet pole for a long time, so I don't get to experience their issues.
How would it otherwise? Network based location?
I totally agree. This is part of the reason I don't want to turn it on, ever. I don't want to use apps that support that shit, even unknowingly.
Yes. Your phone could triangulate its location from nearby celltowers ane wifi networks. Google has a database of wifi routers (actually that was the point of google streetview, they collected wifi bssids alongside taking photos, they also collect this data from android devices).
With microg you can select from different dbs for this, they are called 'UnifiedNlp backends': apple has a similar db from iphones, mozilla used to collect this data with a separate app for MLS (they shut down the project in 2024 march). Microg builds an on device private db as well, it will remembers the wifi networks and celltowers you were close to, and next time you are there it won't need gps, saves a ton of battery life. This was called Deja Vu, I love this name. Search for UnifiedNlp on fdroid you can find some more options.
Since MicroG 0.3 you don't have to install these separately, Mozilla and Deja Vu are builtin, and they are more than enough
And maybe tomorrow we'll see UP grow up, removing one more piece from google. And the day after, another piece.