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First Impressions of Lineage for microG


2020-11-14T20:57


I have microG¹ running on my Oneplus 6T². It was relatively straight-forward to install LineageOS for microG, though there were a few bumps.


The first bump was that it wouldn't automatically upgrade from the version of Android shipped with the phone to the latest Android 9, and it wouldn't upgrade to Android 10 from anything but the latest Android 9. (Lineage strongly discourage installing it over Android 9).


The other bump was that the Lineage recovery image wouldn't install microG, but I found that TWRP could.


After booting, it looked familiar enough. It resembled my Nexus 7 running an old release LineageOS close enough.


One of the first tasks I tried was to install pCloud⁴. It understandably isn't available on F-Droid⁵ so I searched F-Droid for an app to install APKs instead.


The main point of microG is to improve the Android experience without needing a Google Account or the Play Services. I don't plan to ever connect my phone to a Google account because I can't trust they won't abuse any information I give them. Hypocritically, I do have an Android TV which is connected to a Google account. I hate the TV and the situation but I haven't got around to doing anything about it. If anyone knows of hacked firmware for Sony Bravia TVs, I would love to hear about it.


My search of F-Droid for something to install APKs provided one promising result: APKMirror⁶. I installed it which turned out to be a horrible mistake... This thing was so full of ads that I couldn't distinguish between the site and its tricks to make me click ads. At least half of everything presented was an ad. This was my very first experience of F-Droid and it was my very first experience of APKMirror.


I immediate thought something must be wrong here. I checked F-Droid to make sure I hadn't overlooked anything and I found this, well, excuse:


> However, as anyone who has visited the APKMirror site probably knows, they do display ads. As this app utilizes a WebView, the site's ads will also end up being displayed in the app. Remember that they show ads to be able to keep their site up, so try not to think too harshly of them.


To give you an idea of what I was presented with when using the app, here is a video I shot afterward. (The first time, I was also seeing full-screen popups but wasn't caught in this recording.)


APKMirror app on a fresh install of Lineage for MicroG


I don't believe I'm over-exaggerating or being sensitive in feeling that this is disgusting, and it's fucking disgusting for F-Droid to defend it. It even goes against their own code of practice. They consider ads an Anti-Feature⁷.


To F-Droid, I say you should be at least be labelling APKMirror as containing the Ads anti-feature, or IMO, pulling it from the store entirely. I don't care that technically it is FOSS software that wraps a webview, it's not like it's a web browser that is agnostic about content, this app's only purpose is to show APKMirror. This app is an example of a shitty, hostile way to treat users. Your users. APKMirror are exploiting your reputation for their own profit. I trusted you based entirely on reputation — because I hadn't yet developed the experience — and I thought higher of you.


Shortly after, I found APKPure. It is a much nicer way to install proprietary apps. I'm also using NextDNS to block ads within apps.


I should add that this has of course not turned me off Lineage for microG or F-Droid. The mobile internet is a shitty place and I truly appreciate that there are tools that help us protect ourselves from it.



EDIT: Thank you people for kindly recommending Aurora Store. For me, is much better than APKPure.



¹ microG

² Oneplus 6T

³ LineageOS for microG

⁴ pCloud

⁵ F-Droid

⁶ APKMirror page on F-Droid

⁷ F-Droid Anti-Features



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