I have been steady researching this and I have stumbbled upon what lloks like an unfinshed doc for the Developer Verification Program
Key notes
- still no rollout schedule
- Fee can be found in FAQ. Says it will be $25
- That you will have to provide a state-issued ID even for the now free “Limited Distribution” that has a 20 device maximum
- In the FAQ it shows that this is covering all devices Android 7.0 and up and admits that the Advanced Flow in Google Play Services.
- still does not address how they are justifying this at all
They have stolen a free product and are now activity locking out the people who built it.
ASOP does not belong to them it belongs to us. Time to get it back I think.
We really need someone to drop a pure Linux phone here in the US. I know Graphene has figured how their gonna sidestep this, but I really feel like it’s only a matter of time until security updates or hotfixes to zero day exploits are withheld from AOSP ROMs all together.
What does that look like? Who do you feel needs to do what for that to happen?
In this current timeline here in the states, I can’t see any company willing to open lines of credit for mass production due to the economy and all the other shit going on. I could see a small company bootstrapped by FOSS enthusiasts/advocates trying to answer the call though.
Tech wise, if they follow in Graphene’s footsteps and figure out a particular phone brand to successfully install whatever Linux they provide (ie - Mobian). Be kinda cool to mail them an older phone that’s on their compatibility list and they charge for the install.
A smart marketing campaign to get people to switch to a new OS for that phone in the drawer might be compelling to the nontechie crowd.