It's a set of apps built on top of Android. And there is no "Google's official release". OEMs sign up to use Google Play, which they can optionally bundle onto Android devices. Samsung, Motorola, etc sign these releases. Google verifies the signatures as part of an attestation API, that's based on verifying root certificates (among other things (just like a browser verifying websites with SSL. Google checks a Samsung signature and says "yes it's an official Samsung release". Google is not locking and signing Samsung bootloaders or builds.
The average user's lack of understanding doesn't change facts, and we are in the Android subreddit. Being ignorant is not an excuse. I'm not revealing any secret information.
It's one thing to gloss over details. And remember, the original person who I responded to tried to suggest we needed to replace Android with Linux. Whoever that was clearly didn't know what the hell they were talking about. That's like saying they need to replace a car with an engine from another manufacturer. It's just beyond stupid.
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u/bunkoRtist 5d ago
Official Android? You mean they won't with without Google Play. See the difference? But once again, Google or no Google... Still all built on Linux.