good luck explaining this to average users
Personally I just switched to Shizuku + Droid-ify + Install with options. I won’t even notice when they start doing it. Unless some devs decide to be drama queens and quit for no reason.
Your “average user” doesn’t sideload in the first place.
That’s your fault, for not introducing them to F-Droid 
Why would anyone provide keys if nobody asks for them? Maybe some linux phones have something, but even on desktop you get hacks at best. The only architecture that offers enough freedom for any device vendor to do it properly is called Power, and nobody or their granma’s who ever touched a smartphone in their lives have heard that name.
The point is it’s not ok. Support companies that make small steps in the right direction like providing alternative OS option preferably with warranty. Last time I bought a phone was 5 years ago and it officially supported Lineage (and even Ubuntu Touch lol, it obviously went under cause nobody gets it, “oh it has some bugs, oh the camera doesn’t have special proprietary sauce from google, oh it’s like 10% less powerful than a flagship of the same price, so it’s crap, give me refund now”), and I’m not planning on buying another one for another 5 years at least, so I don’t know what’s there now, the buzzword is “degoogled” these days so you can look that up, I even posted a link above of what came up first for me.
F-Droid’s selling point is that it builds the APKs from source, those APK will no longer be installable on stock android, that’s what’s happening. Not F-Droid being banned or something to have to split in two. You won’t see any of the other alternative stores that just redistribute APKs from Play Store complaining about this. Maybe the ones that have modded/pirated APKs will notice, but watch those rascals be the first to make a one tap APK sideloader of dubious origin that will spread like flu. All hail Andorid the securest phone!
Thanks. What was understood from the website pages:
Summary
OpenPOWER Foundation is about open hardware, including the POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), processor designs, firmware, and related technologies. While it also encompasses open-source software, a core part of its mission is to enable an ecosystem for building custom hardware.
How the OpenPOWER Foundation supports open hardware:
- Open architecture: The foundation promotes an open-source development model around the POWER ISA, a robust processor architecture. This makes the technology accessible to a wider range of developers and companies.
- Hardware and IP contributions: IBM, which initiated the foundation, has contributed key technologies to the OpenPOWER community. These include open-source processor cores like Microwatt, which can be used as a reference design.
- Blueprints and specifications: Members can access blueprints, specifications, and documentation for POWER-based server, networking, and storage hardware. This allows them to customize designs for specific applications like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and high-performance computing.
- Hardware development tools: The foundation provides tools and resources, such as reference designs and working groups, to help members develop and innovate with the open hardware.
- Developer labs: Initiatives like the OpenPOWER HUB at Oregon State University provide free access to POWER-based hardware resources. This allows developers to test and integrate their hardware and software projects.
My next natural question to find answer to: Is the OpenPower Foundation smartphone along with OS and apps available in Bharat directly?
Information collected
No, smartphones based on the OpenPOWER Foundation’s architecture are not available for direct purchase by consumers in Bharat or anywhere else. The foundation focuses on enterprise-level technology for data centers, cloud computing, and high-performance computing, not consumer devices.
Why OpenPOWER is not a consumer smartphone platform:
- Target hardware: The OpenPOWER Foundation primarily develops and promotes its architecture for servers, networking, storage hardware, and specialized components like accelerators. This is very different from the processors found in modern smartphones.
- Target market: The foundation’s work is aimed at enterprise customers, data centers, and developers who need to build customized, high-performance hardware, rather than the mass consumer market.
- Operating systems: While the OpenPOWER ecosystem supports operating systems like Linux, it is a “little endian” version that requires a specific chip architecture. This is not the standard version of Android used by mainstream smartphones.
- Open-source ecosystem: The foundation promotes an open-source model, but its open-source cores, like Microwatt, are for developers and system builders, not for off-the-shelf consumer products.
The “Bharat” smartphones, like the ones with the NxtQuantum OS or BharOS, are based on the ARM architecture, not the OpenPOWER architecture. These initiatives are a separate effort to create indigenous software ecosystems for consumer devices.
About BharOS and the phone that has it installed: what kind of phone is it?
Findings
BharOS
is a secure, Indian-developed mobile OS based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). It currently targets institutions with strict privacy needs, not the general public. The OS runs on specific, compatible Android devices, including some Google Pixel phones, but there is no widely available, pre-installed BharOS phone.
Key features:
- No default apps: Users choose all installed applications.
- PASS: A Private App Store Service vets apps for organizations.
- Android compatibility: Works with many standard apps, but some requiring Google services may not function.
In summary, it’s a minimal-footprint Android variant for custom, secure deployments, not a consumer product on its own branded hardware.
Overall, my eagerly-awaited device is still to arrive.
P.S.: Thank you, moderator, for your re-structuring the post.
They’re normies. They don’t care about deblobbed apps, alternative clients for video sites, etc. All the apps they care about are on Google Play. Even if you told them they could get a YouTube app with built in sponsorblock and adblock (which most of them are the type that uses YouTube without an adblock or shutters actually pays for YouTube Premium) they’d just say “Oh, that’s cool" and proceed to not use it and if you offered to install it for them they’d actually say no.
The petition isn’t a bad idea but let’s be real… installing apps from outside Google Play is extremely niche. Your average person doesn’t care. And the people who do can more than likely figure out Shizuku (or similar). It’s really not hard. You should see what they put up with sideloading on iOS. Now that’s horror.
Please don’t post AI chat sessions here. 
It is niche, but it will become a lot more niche if you have to jump through extra hoops for installation.
Until now it was just a few taps to enable the permission to install an app from a browser or some store, basically anyone could do it by just reading the popup dialogs at first install.
With this change you can’t do it with just your phone anymore and there’s no information about how to install, unless they start to research it. I know legit apps that have thousands of users, I’m sure that not all of them are advanced users.
It’s coming, next step would be mandatory play services integration, then they’ll probably close source the toolchain. I registered a dev account recently and they would not allow me to publish an app because I have a degoogled phone. After dozens of emails of their support pretending to not be able to comprehend basic sentances I finally managed to get them to tell me to my face that I either have to wipe my phone and install google play services on it or use someone else’s phone to verify “ownership of android device”. This is a 2024 thing, and no dev made a single squek over this from what I can tell, they’re all just “this is fine” meme. I posted the same in dev console community and the only responses I got were from this ond guy who would gaslight me something fearse trying to defend google, literally better than their support, I guess he was looking to get hired.
and their number will decide your faith too, hence… ZEALOT MORE!
/PS: half jokeing…
I repeat myself:
Foogle is big time …
From F-Droid blog
Summary
I (Hans) had one extended comical conversation with a guy there who loved jumping in the talk about how great Apple and Google are. I asked him why he came. He said he was just interested. I asked whether he worked on app developments, he said he didn’t, but worked in recycling. Out of curiosity, I asked whether he thought the recycling business was in any related to the DMA. He started acting dodgy and said no. I kept asking friendly questions around how he financed his DMA work, and the dodges just kept on getting funnier and funnier.
You’ll always find such people, mostly with hidden agenda.
We have to make it impossible to enforce without a ton of backlash, more backlash then they’re experiencing now.
Although this is only in the USA
With ArceusLand forming, provided ArceusLand gains enough power, if Google mandates Google Play Services, that could lead to Google being seriously fined, millions or even billions of dollars in fines for violating Freedom of Choice, that would get Google to seriously reconsider.
Companies don’t want to lose huge amounts of money, as that will scare off investors.
FireOS is also based on Android.
Ahhh, they’re learning.
Call it “pirating apps” to start with; rather than all apps. That way Amz can extend it to all apps more easily later on; with less of that pesky consumer blow-back.
And, anyways, who exactly will be deciding if an app is a pirate app?
You? Me? Or Amz?
The wide range of categories of apps in this list strongly suggests Swiggy is collecting installed apps data for user profiling and to build a behavioural profile of their customers. This seems to be against Play Store’s policies which considers the list of installed apps to be personal and sensitive user data.
Something to ponder and take back to foogle for shit that goes on.