this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Pointless over-reaction from GrapheneOS. GNU is harshly honest about the open-source stuff - blobs are obviously, proprietary, and so are Google-based softwares and services.
I'm afraid to ask this because I'm not a dev, but I have a fair amount of linux experience. Why is it that the ability to install Google Play Services on GrapheneOS makes it not FOSS/open source, while the ability to install Google Chrome (or any proprietary software, I guess) on Linux doesn't make is non-FOSS/open source?
I'm not articulating that question very well, and I'm assuming I'm missing some key component, but they seem comparable to me, as a regular user. Is it something like the level of access that GPServices has to the kernel?
On Linux most distros do not actually ship chrome but chromium which is the open source version of chrome.
It also comes down to how different groups define FOSS. GNU considers even helper programs (like a package manager or firmware installer) to be "bad" for the user because they "encourage" its use so they dont want them included in GNU approved distros like trisqul or guix . this leads to those "freedom respecting" distros not having things like basic WiFi drivers or support for any 3rd party drivers.
To a less extreme degree but similar is a distro like debian, where there is a "non_free" repository available but users can choose not to enable it.
And so GNU sees having the playstore as a bad thing because its gateway to installing other non free software. Its also safe to assume most gnu evangelists probably don't care much for chromium either.