Control.
Where else are we going to go?

If side loading is actually allowed on iOS it's exclusively because the past few years of lawsuits forced them to, and they keep trying to block it in new ways. Android can only be equally bad as Apple at worst, because Apple is as bad as they are legally allowed to in a given jurisdiction. So picking iOS over Android over that specific issue seems odd. They get brownie points for having blocked it from the start?

Dude. On what hardware?
My 1 years old AND 4 years old Samsung phones now lock their bootloader.

Random, fly by night China phones won't have enough documentation or enough consistency in hardware to be a viable rally point for firmware devs, will they?

Don't get me wrong. I will buy exactly that Linux Phone for my next device if it gives me three browsers and enough untracked fundamental functionality like calculators and contact lists.

But I'm genuinely worried there won't be a hardware vendor in the game in my market (the land of Y'allQaeda) to sell me a compatible device that plays nice with the three mobile providers that still exist here.

Poe's Law is alive and well.

Is Linux viable as a mobile os yet?

They might copy from apple. 3 apps with a self signed cert that needs to be renewed every week...

Gotta buy a different phone then

I think that other guy's comment about the ICE tracker app really highlights the most important problem: If only signed apps can run, governments can pressure companies to remove access to certain apps. Even if Google allowed posting the app, the author would have to de-anonymize himself, and Google would have to comply with the law if they were subpoenaed. They would definitely give up the author's name. It is an issue of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to do with your device what you choose to do with it. You might not have a use for it (right now) but it's not necessarily something you'd want to give up.

And, honestly, I would personally be affected by this, eventually. I use an app called NewPipe to watch youtube. It already isn't available on the app store (violates google's ToS), and I doubt they'd let people install this even if the author properly identified themselves, because I use it to avoid watching adds and to be able to "subscribe" to channels without an account. I could just borrow my husband's premium subscription, I guess, but I really only use NewPipe to watch certain things, and it lacks the algorithmically driven feed (which I am actively avoiding, Google tends to suggest things that make you angry for clicks).

Linux isn't an OS.

What do you mean ? There is ubuntu touch working in some phone.

I saw that there is some improvements, for the fair phone 5 it seems that it is working but no dual Sim possible and LTE phone calls.
You can check it out for your model on this site :
https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/

I wouldn't call it dumb but maybe expecting too much from people now that convenience and hand holding is expected at all times.

*Canned laughter that fades into awkward reflective silence.*

• Android will require apps to be signed with real name signatures. You can install apps from anywhere.
• iPhone doesn't allow any apps to be installed except when downloaded from Apple through iTunes.

This change requires you to attach your real name when publishing software. That's all. You can still publish to and install packages from anywhere. This doesn't come close to Apple's complete control.

Google already scans packages you're installing for malware and alerts you and allows you to install them anyway. This gives that scanner one more tool to identify bad actors.

30+ years later and people just can’t let that go….

Remember everyone…Google never cared about you or your phone or your privacy. They are a marketing company and make money selling your data. Your data is all they care about. They don’t offer a wide range of products, like search and Gmail and all of their office products for free, just for the fun of it.

DING DING DING

You can side load on iphone. I can't verify since I don't have an iPhone, but I'm seeing mixed posts online.

Either way, I'd change on the fact they're disabling going forward just as a parting middle finger.

Go buy some more airpods loser

This will only be effective so long because gradually apps will require greater and greater API levels. Staying stuck in the past is, at best, a temporary solution.

The openness of Android is the thing that kept me on the platform. Now that the openness is being removed, iOS is now more appealing.

Sadly, I think most of the customers that use Android never sideload a single app at all. I don't expect this to create a mass exodus, but a smaller one with power users.