In May, we began preparing to port to Android 16 despite our most active senior developer responsible for leading OS development being unavailable (@GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social). Android 16 launched today and porting is going to be significantly more difficult than we were expecting.

We did far more preparation for Android 16 than we've ever done for any previous yearly release. Since we weren't able to obtain OEM partner access, we did extensive reverse engineering of the upcoming changes. Developers also practiced by redoing previous quarterly/yearly ports.

Unfortunately, Android has made changes which will make it much harder for us to port to Android 16 and future releases. It will also make adding support for new Pixels much more difficult. We're likely going to need to focus on making GrapheneOS devices sooner than we expected.

We don't understand why these changes were made and it's a major turn in the wrong direction. Google is in the process of losing multiple antitrust cases in the US. Android and Chrome being split into separate companies has been requested by the DOJ. They may be preparing for it.

We're hard at work on getting the port to Android 16 done but there's a large amount of additional work we weren't expecting. It can be expected to take longer than our usual ports due to the connoscription issue combined with this. It's not good, but we have to deal with it.

Having our own devices meeting our hardware requirements (https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices) would reduce the time pressure to migrate to new releases and could be used to obtain early access ourselves. Based on talks with OEMs, paying for what we need will cost millions of dollars.

@anselmschueler@ieji.de They're accelerating their efforts to gain more control over the Android ecosystem and tie it more closely to themselves. Despite being in the process of losing multiple cases related to it, they're increasing their anti-competitive behavior. Support for open source appears to be collateral damage because it gets in the way of control. They seem to regret Android being open and would prefer if it was a closed source product where companies couldn't use any of it without them.

If you've been on the fence about supporting GrapheneOS, now might be a good time to start.

We're also going to need to start heavily focusing on making our own devices going forward.

We've made a lot of progress on porting to Android 16 already. If things hadn't been made harder for us, we would likely be able to publish an experimental release tomorrow and quickly get a release into the Alpha and then Beta channels to start ironing out the bugs in the port.

Our speculation about this is that a result of Google losing a US antitrust case and likely losing several more soon, they're preparing for Android and Chrome being split into separate companies. If Android gets split off, they want to retain Pixels.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/technology/google-search-remedies-hearing.html

🚨Google is NOT killing AOSP!

Google has come out and refuted speculation that it's discontinuing AOSP. However, the company just made it tougher to build AOSP for Pixel devices.

Here's how👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/google-not-killing-aosp-3566882/

We're going to be moving forward under the expectation that future Pixel devices may not meet the requirements to run GrapheneOS (https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices) and may not support using another OS. We've been in talks with a couple OEMs about making devices and what it would cost.

Google has released a statement claiming AOSP is not being discontinued. This should be taken with a grain of salt, especially considering that they made similar public statements recently followed by discontinuing significant parts of AOSP on June 10.

https://x.com/seangchau/status/1933029688202703062

Small gestures make a big difference! Natalie and Jakob are working on improving gesture support in @kde@floss.social Plasma. Check out their sprint report.

https://blogs.kde.org/2025/06/12/gesture-customization-mini-sprint/

@kde@lemmy.kde.social

#linux #wayland #kde #input #floss

Mel Brooks is returning for Spaceballs 2 https://www.theverge.com/news/687056/spaceballs-2-mel-brooks-yogurt-returning-2027

I love it when FOSS advocates use AI images, absolutely aligns with the message, good job everyone

"My #Mac Contacted 63 Different #Apple Owned Domains in One Hour - While Not is Use"

https://appaddict.app/post/my-mac-contacted-63-different-apple-owned-domains-in-one-hour-while-not-is-use

#privacy

I can't stop laughing at this https://blogs.gnome.org/adrianvovk/2025/06/10/gnome-systemd-dependencies/

I've been working on a new site to help transparency in the #FOSS world:

https://isitreallyfoss.com/

This is an evolution upon my prior confusion cases work, intended to make the information more accessible, functional and easier to maintain, while now also featuring projects which are committed & transparent regarding free and #OpenSource software.