7 ms·
> sideloading It's called installing. Language matters and I see no reason to concede this point in Google's favour.
by 24t 10mo ago
> sideloading
It's called installing. Language matters and I see no reason to concede this point in Google's favour.
- cbolton 10mo agoYou can also install through the Play store. Sideloading is more specific.
- makeitdouble 10mo agoWould you make the same distinction on a mac when installing Photoshop from the Adobe installer vs installing KeyNote from the MacStore ?
- cbolton 10mo agoI'm not too familiar with macOS... How normal/expected is it now to install through the App Store? As mentioned in another comment, for a Linux distribution like Debian there are highly trusted official repositories, and I think using "sideloading" for other sources would make some sense.
- makeitdouble 10mo agoOn macos I assume most apps are installed outside of the Store, straight from the developper's site. Which would make the Store a "sideloading" channel by that token ? On Linux you have the default package sources, but for instance adding third party sources will still integrate the same with the system, I also never heard someone call installing Go or Java "side loading", though you're getting an installer from the site you need to run on your own. Same way for building from source. IMHO "sideloading" would not apply to any system open enough, where adding stuff from multiple sources is expected from the start.
- cbolton 10mo ago> Which would make the Store a "sideloading" channel by that token ? I don't think so, it's still an official channel offered by the OS maker. > adding third party sources will still integrate the same with the system but obviously with a higher risk of breakage since it was not tested while the official release was cooking (at least for Debian the official set of packages in stable is expected to have virtually no conflict issues, but as soon as you add third-party sources all bets are off). > I also never heard someone call installing Go or Java "side loading" neither have I, but I can imagine that in some contexts it could be a useful term. Like "did you sideload Go?" (implicitly asking if you got the third-party release vs installing from the official distribution repository). I'm not saying people say that, but that the term might also make sense in the Linux world. > IMHO "sideloading" would not apply to any system open enough, where adding stuff from multiple sources is expected from the start. Yeah if there's no sense of "main" channels that are more trusted or more stable the term doesn't make sense.
- devsda 10mo agoLike hacking, sideloading is now a loaded & misunderstood term. It is considered as something only nerds or bad actors do. Let's just call it alternate install.
- mrighele 10mo agoOr manual install.
- exe34 10mo agoHow about calling the other one "installing from the play store"? installing was there first.
- miroljub 10mo agoExactly. Let's invent a word for "installing from play store". Playstoring? So we can rewrite the story to something like: Google wants to prohibit app installation on Android phones. The only way to get an app would be through playstoring.
- fainpul 10mo agoCorpoloading
- amelius 10mo agoNannyloading
- 10mo ago
- engeljohnb 10mo agoI can install on my Fedora laptop through dnf. I've never felt like I needed a new word to describe downloading and running an AppImage. Why would phones be different?
- opan 10mo ago`adb sideload` existed as a command for installing an apk from your PC on to your phone. Sideloading was not meant to refer to installing an apk on the phone from the phone.
- nzeid 10mo agoI knew if I read enough comments I'd finally arrive at my favorite take. Installing an APK directly through your phone is in fact NOT sideloading.
- tonyhart7 10mo agowell because its not allowed to "install" from third party sources (atleast not yet) google has control on their android ecosystem behave, same reason why its not allowed in playstation or xbox or ios
- engeljohnb 10mo agoThe whole selling point of Android up until now was that it allowed you to install any app you want. The point of the above comment is that Google intentionally introduced the word "sideload" to make "installing an app on your own device which Google did not curate" sound more risky and sinister than it is, and I'm inclined to agree. I "make" coffee on my keurig. If Keurig decides that making any single-serve coffe pods that aren't owned by the Keurig brand is now called "off-brewing," I'd dismiss it as ridiculous and continue calling it "making coffee." We should use the language that makes sense, not the language that happens be good PR for google.
- tonyhart7 10mo ago"The whole selling point of Android up until now was that it allowed you to install any app you want." we can debate whether this is bad thing or good thing, it would have no ends what matters is reality, the reality is google have the right to change it.
- geokon 10mo agoDoesn't feel like any conspiracy.. Isn't sideloading installing through adb instead of from the system itself? (by clicking on an APK or using an app Store like Xiaomi/Googled/Huawei/Fdroid) "Side" being.. from your computer
- 24t 10mo agoYes but fdroid is facing restrictions while adb is not
- geokon 10mo agosure, google is trying to cash in. not saying theyre nice people. but the handwringing over semantics and suggesting Google has a master plan to abuse vocabular just sounds ridiculous
- lukan 10mo agoSo you do know, they want to make profit. You also know, what is commonly used for making profit? PR. And they are all about changing the meaning of words, to achieve a certain effect in people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom What exactly is ridiculous to the idea, that maybe there was a google meeting where the name was debated and the pro and cons of different names evaluated from their buisness perspective?
- slightwinder 10mo agoNo, on android, it always meant installing an APK directly, without a store-app. You can use ADB, but you also can just download the APK on your device and install it locally with your browser or filemanager.
- griffzhowl 10mo agoI agree with the ethos but "banning installing" wouldn't have been correct here. There should be terminology for installing from the source of your choice which doesn't carry the marginal or sinister connotations of "sideloading" though. "Freeloading" would have been a good one but... yeah
- 24t 10mo agoI'm not suggesting a drop-in replacement within that context, just that widening the definition of sideloading does us no favours 'installing from beyond the walled garden' would be a nice fit here imo
- griffzhowl 10mo agoextramuraloading?
- graemep 10mo ago"Freely installing"?
- cuu508 10mo ago"banning installing from anywhere but play store"
- green7ea 10mo agoWouldn't it be accurate to say that you can no longer install apps on your phone, only Google can?
- dpoloncsak 10mo agoIf we're being pedantic, the user still has to perform the final action before the install begins. I think it' more "Google has to allow you to install apps on your phone"
- LtWorf 10mo agoAnd they've never allowed the users to uninstall certain apps. (interestingly the keyboard app is not among these, so my sister has uninstalled it by mistake once)
- estimator7292 10mo agoLanguage matters, so don't let google turn sideloading into a dirty word. It was called sideloading before Google was even founded.
- embedding-shape 10mo agoMy first encounter with "sideloading" I think was loading up a MP3 player with music, for some reason that was called "sideloading" by some people. In that case, "sideloading" was just transferring basically, nothing about installing. But once Android appeared, and there was one Google-approved way of installing applications (Google Store) and one way of installing directly from .apk after enabling "Unknown Sources", then the word started to be used for the second approach. I don't remember if it was Google who started using "sideloading" or the community itself, but regardless, "installing" would be a more understandable word for anyone to use for the processing of installing an application on your phone, as (what I recall to be) the original meaning was just transferring.
- AdmiralAsshat 10mo ago> My first encounter with "sideloading" I think was loading up a MP3 player with music, for some reason that was called "sideloading" by some people. In that case, "sideloading" was just transferring basically, nothing about installing. Probably influenced by the original iPod, which really wanted you to sync your iPod with your iTunes library (conveniently directing you to purchase all of your music from Apple's platform). "Sideloading" referred to the few extra steps to get your computer to simply expose the iPod as a removable storage device and drag-and-drop your mp3s over that way. It wouldn't have made sense in the context of other mp3 players, because for many of the ones I remember (like my Creative Zen Touch), that was the only way to add the mp3s. I don't think Creative even supplied a front-end media manager...or if they did, I never bothered installing it.
- embedding-shape 10mo agoYeah, people in my circles and also people on the internet would refer to it as "sideloading" even though none of us were using iPods (I think this was all before the iPod actually, but my memory is a bit hazy), just copy-paste the files with explorer.exe over to the built-in MP3 player storage, people calling it "sideloading".