TC freedom version

[admiral]

New TC version 3.31 introduce new android limitation.
Is it possible to create other version of TC without Android11 limitation?

This is my phone, my SD-Card and this is my decision what I want to do with my data.
As I understand that TC version on GooglePlay have to be as Google expect
but maybe the version from the website or f-droid or github, whatever ... could be for more advanced user friendly?

I want to: have access to my sd-card (for two android accounts or more) , folders of my apks, install what I want and so on ...

Most probably user who install TC from link and not from GooglePlay is rather more advanced/aware of the danger.

What is your opinion?

[ghisler(Author)]

3.31 introduces the following limitations, otherwise it would have been removed from Google Play:
1. It will now always open an external browser to download plugins. It only used the internal (help file) browser when there was no other browser installed, so this change is irrelevant for most users
2. The internal browser will refuse to download apk files when the play store is installed on the same system. Again this will not affect most users.
3. The help file viewer opens links to ghisler.com and other sites also in an external browser
4. The internal apk installer will refuse to install an apk of Total Commander itself (class com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander) when the play store is installed on the same system. There is a clause that apps from the play store are not allowed to update themselves via any other ways than the play store. Again this will not affect devices without the play store like Huawei or custom ROMs.

In summary, there shouldn't be any need to release a separate version without these restrictions.

[admiral]

ad2 & ad4
In this case I can't upgrade new TC version in future when I download it from website.
I should remove/uninstall current version of TC then install new one. (loosing settings)
Upgrade is impossible. Then website links to android apks seems to be useless in future for upgrades.
They can be used for new installation only.

It was just example.

PS
The main problem (for me) is that I can't use my sd-card at all when I use second android profile.
sd-card is formatted as fat32 so there is no "physical" limit but limitation introduce by android "ideology"

[ghisler(Author)]

No, you misunderstand, you do not need to uninstall TC to install a newer version. The only difference is how you install the apk:
Instead of clicking on the apk in Total Commander, you need to download it with a browser and then install it directly from that browser.

[georgeb]

The only difference is how you install the apk: Instead of clicking on the apk in Total Commander, you need to download it with a browser and then install it directly from that browser.

Well, then this does sound like a severe setback to me that I've been unaware of so far. I usually refuse to use google-Playstore - for good reasons as it turns out. I usually download apks not from an android-device at all but would rather download them to a PC first. There I also have the tools to inspect that apk first and look into it. My experience is that fake-apks do not bother to mask the fraud at all. Even a quick look into the apk with the wdx-content-plugin (which is not available on Android) would usually give them away as fraud.

So only after inspection for a possibly wrong version-number and the like I will transfer that apk to my WiFi-NAS and from there transfer it further to the Android-devices that are supposed to run them. And of course it is TCAnd (what else?) from which I then load them to an Apk-folder on each device-associated SD-card and install from there via TCAnd.

Having that said and described my usual MO it is kind of unacceptable for me to no longer being able to install apks directly by calling them from within TCAnd. That almost sounds like a deal-breaker. Is, for example, x-plore file-manager affected by this latest "hostile-takeover-assault" by Google in the same way?

Anyhow - if such sinister Google activity to further deprive Android-users of their proprietary devices and their unrestricted usage is on its march - then I would strongly second the above proposal for such an unrestricted "freedom-version" of TCAnd, even if payed like the PC-version, which could be distributed via ghisler.ch and would need to be completely independent from those Playstore-vultures.

[ghisler(Author)]

If you don't have installed the Play Store, then TC will allow to install its own apk. Otherwise it will only install apks of other programs. This is a Google requirement, not something I can change.

[georgeb]

This is a Google requirement, not something I can change.

I don't know, until now I CAN install updated TCAnd-apks (like all other apks) from within TCAnd - while I have Playstore installed from the get-go as usual. The difference might be that Playstore is not automatically RUNNING on my device and I never have installed TCAnd from Playstore to begin with, only from the direct download-page.

But to completely remove Playstore from my device I would need to have that device rooted, at least that is the information I've got from experts.

As far as the "Google requirement you cannot change" is concerned - what authority does Google have to enforce that? As I understand that this would only be true for a TCAnd-version that is distributed via Google in some way. But the very point of the OP has been, after all, that exactly this annoyance of Google dictating the capabilities of TCAnd would be reason enough to offer some Google-independent "TCAnd_Pro"-version directly distributed via ghisler.ch without any such restrictions and with enhanced capabilities, also and in particular for rooted Android-devices.

And I would 100% support such a proposal.

[ghisler(Author)]

what authority does Google have to enforce that?

They have threatened to remove Total Commander from the Play Store if I don't change the app within one week. Repeated offenses would cause all apps to be removed and my account closed.

[georgeb]

They have threatened to remove Total Commander from the Play Store if I don't change the app within one week.

Now that is understood and congruent with the impertinence one would expect from Google. But who says that - let's say your brother in law - couldn't offer some (strangely similar yet even better) payed "File-Champion"-app which would be exclusively distributed via some Swiss web-site?

[Horst.Epp]

They have threatened to remove Total Commander from the Play Store if I don't change the app within one week.

Now that is understood and congruent with the impertinence one would expect from Google. But who says that - let's say your brother in law - couldn't offer some (strangely similar yet even better) payed "File-Champion"-app which would be exclusively distributed via some Swiss web-site?

Please stop that useless discussion.
Start to understand the legal requirements.
Why should Christian take any risk for nothing to gain.

[white]

Please stop that useless discussion.

Moderator message from: white » 2022-05-13, 07:41 UTC

Please don't tell users what they should or should not write.

Reminder:

7. Don't tell users what they should or should not write and don't moderate other users. If you think moderator interaction is required please send an email to a moderator of your choice.

Although this rule is in the guidelines for moderators, it is a rule for users.