Now that I think about it cubic isn't really a measure of volume :
"cubic" on its own is not a measure of volume. It is an adjective that describes something related to a cube or three-dimensional space, but it requires a unit of length to provide a meaningful measure of volume.
The assumption I think is that Google ask for more and more work to use that feature. So you can either shrug it off or prepare for Google to remove this ability entirely.
Usually as an IT professional people assume I lost touch with the average people abilities with technology. I'm used to that by now.
I understand very well most people want a phone to be simple and easy to use.
This is not a justification to remove this advanced options for power users. None of the user you mention in your post will ever activate sideloading. This is just an option for that minority of people.
Android is not much more complicated to use than IOS if you stick to basic use; social networks, taking pics, picking up calls. That's it.
You can do all of that without ever knowing about sideloading or advanced permissions and so on.
So thank you but I'm with well aware I shouldn't use my perception of Android as the norm. But I'll definitely say that the average user literally doesn't ever go in those advanced settings so whether they exist or not doesn't matter to them. But out of openness I think it's important the power users can still have this OPTION available.
Also if you really want a simple phone and super easy to use. Get them an IPhone and call it a day it's simple as that. Obviously if you can't afford one then Android should still be fine anyway.
Somehow I doubt any less technology enthusiastic person would favor an Android phone over an Apple one to then complain that there is too many options available in the settings.
I dont really have the time to participate in what looks like an interesting debate but I have a few notes on your post.
How do you expect to attempt to secure that many devices by allowing the platform to continue as it was?
Secure what? Against what type of threat? This type of vague question results in vague answers. If the threat is social engineering I would argue not many protection would be effective beside educating the user about that.
You call it dumbing down, which I understand, but how do you stop all the click-happy people from installing the next nefarious "game", when they already have little to no chance to avoid email spam and SMS scams, let alone LLM generated "custom targeted" exploits.
You don't stop them. You ask them and show them a disclaimer when they activate sideloading and that's it. They are on their own. If the user doesn't understand the risk after (skipping) the disclaimer. That's their own fault. I don't want to be put in prison just to make sure nothing bad ever happen to me. If a user purposefully disable protections they are on their own. But they should always be able to disable them.
I get that there are users who use this (now) vanishing functionality, but are they representative of the total user base, or edge cases? Neither you nor I have any hard data on that, but I know that as an ICT professional, I'm an outlier.
This is the openness of the OG Android. Welcoming as many users as possible even if they are not your mean average user. It doesn't matter if these user are a minority. They should be able to override any security they want. As long as they have acknowledged that they understand the risk and will not sue Google for it. I don't see the problem.
I have worked on a custom ROM based on AOSP and that's the other trend that worries me. The fact that less and less of "Android" seems to go to AOSP was already a concern years ago. Google wants to close their OS to better compete with Apple. This means severing those annoying minority power users from the rest of the community.
I see a very paradoxical response from you coming from Linux. If you enjoy Linux for its openness why would you accept Google rhetoric like that is really surprising. Let users do complicated stuff on your software as long as they have signed a virtual "I AM IN DANGER" form that's OK. If you remove these advanced settings features anyway then it's not for the user, it's a PR move to protect the perception of your software.
Sorry if this comment seems a bit aggressive. In my opinion you are arguing for Android to slowly transform into IOS and ad someone working on Linux for decades, this is very weird.
I just got to say this website is a nightmare. At least 4 popups overlays just opening the article. The remove ads button just leaves the article and offer you to pay to remove ads.
There is also delayed popups appearing while you read the article...
Are they speedrunning obsolence by making sure nobody read their articles online?
To a large extent, the core personality of PC gaming is being niche.
What does that even mean?
What is a personality for PC gaming?
I have never ever felt I was in a niche hobby or that PC gaming was even perceived as such and I have been playing for a long time.
I literally don't understand people having kids in this "climate". That's how cynical and hopeless I feel about humanity's future.
I wouldn't want to inflict that... The heat, the natural disasters, the risk of nuclear wars. The genocides considering multiple were or are active at any point (Palestine, Syria...). The fall of journalism...
Many things I discuss with my friends but nobody could ever dream to fix. So all this shit stays with you. And seeing how our politics are reacting to climate change, this is lost. Because everything else is pointless if you don't have a place to live.
I'm just noticing that metre is the correct spelling in English.
Isn't "meter" the commonly used translation?
I realize it must not be commonly used anyway with the imperial system being used in the US.