I’m note a programmer. I Don’t Understand Codes. How do I Know If An Open Source Application is not Stealing My Data Or Passwords? Google play store is scanning apps. It says it blocks spyware. Unfortunately, we know that it was not very successful. So, can we trust open source software? Can’t someone integrate their own virus just because the code is open?
You mention the Google Play issue. That is an example of a disadvantage of closed source (Android is open, the Google Play Protect is not). Google Play Protect is essentially static code analysis. Think of it almost like antivirus. It tries to look for anomalies in the code itself. But it’s not great. It can be tricked. And we don’t even know how good it is or what kind of checks it does.
FOSS code has many people looking at it. You can compile it yourself. It’s extremely unlikely for something that’s remotely popular to have explicitly malicious code in it. Is it impossible? No. But just as you get folks deep diving video game code assets, you get people looking at code of many FOSS projects. Likely because they either want to contribute or make changes.
It comes down to it being easier to find malicious actors in FOSS. Its just more difficult to hide than closed source.
Why would you think closed source is any safer for any of the same reasons but worse? Closed source can just as easily (arguably more easily) steal your info (and many did but bury it in EULAs).
How come users don’t have root access on Android even though Android is open?
Most phones use customized versions of Android and decide you shouldn’t have root access. It opens up security issues and makes it easier to bypass ads and DRM which they don’t like.
You can get it on some phones, including Google’s.
But why is Android even called opensource when there are restrictions by Google? Isn’t it a dangerous path when Google can decide to ban F-droid on the platform? What could stop them from doing that? How is the future of Android even guaranteed under such a greedy company like Google?
The Android source code is available, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean that all phones are based solely on that source code. Almost all vendors (including Google) have closed-source additions to it.
There are indeed people who agree with you. I do in principle too, but I can’t say this is something I think about much, which is probably how much people who even understand the issue feel. And most people don’t have a clue the issue exists.
Google could ban F-droid on some phones, but not all. OEMs could overrule Google on such things with their custom Android builds, and even if they didn’t, users could create their own ROMs to solve the issue for rooted devices.
Because of the handset makers and wireless carriers (honestly more the latter than the former). It’s not because of Google or Android.
Because the vast majority of users does not need root access.
Alright, but why does Google gets to decide that? Why not make it so that users can get the root access like they can get the developers mode unlocked? On top of that, doesn’t them making it difficult or almost impossible to remove their apps defy the idea of opensource? How is Android even called opensource when the users have so much restriction put upon by Google?
Whether or not someone has admin has nothing to do with whether something is open source.