Post #4456514

2026-08-08 00:39 UTC

Google replaced pushing Git tags for certain source code with obtaining source code via Google Drive after making a request through Google Forms. It's completely ridiculous and they've gradually become very slow at handling requests. They're in clear violation of the GPLv2 now.

Replies (5)

@GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social 2026-08-08 00:45

Prior to moving it to Google Drive, they started squashing the history into a single commit prior to pushing release tags. The tarballs provided via Google Drive have exactly the same source code. However, they went out of the way to make it more inconvenient in several ways.

Open ##4456513
@lattera@bsd.network 2026-08-08 00:50

@GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social How exactly are they in violation of GPLv2?

Open ##4463583
@ellie@ellieayla.net 2026-08-08 01:29

@GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social wtf

Open ##4478884
@K_REY_C@social.coop 2026-08-08 01:48

@GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social ... @conservancy@social.sfconservancy.org

Open ##4478887
@cismonx@mastodon.social 2026-08-08 01:53

@GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social Reminds me of some "open source" apps in China that use Tencent QQ and Baidu Netdisk for distribution. That does not necessarily make them non-free, but somehow defeats the purpose of being open source, since users have to install other proprietary apps on their device and register accounts associated with real ID to get them. No ethical FLOSS developer should ever do that. And apparently we can't expect that from Google.

Open ##4478888