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The Other Side of Android: My Favorite F-Droid Apps (gardinerbryant.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 13 points 3 months ago (6 children)

I like f droid but have found over the years that many creators of the apps I enjoy using end up just walking away and stop maintaining the app. I got the impression that making the app was just something they did for the experience and then moved on.

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  • [–] 28 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    That's actually what I think of as how the open source works. It's not that millions of people are working for you to have things all the time. It's just that instead of making something and letting it be lost in some hard drive they share it. If something has enough interest, use value, and passion from the creator then the work will continue.

    Some programs with heavy industry use, or a passionate user base will be successful, but even the niche small programs are there so if someone wants to continue the work they can.

    Vs the same little programs from companies that are not open source will be just lost, you can't get the source and continue even if you want to. Even they will discard the source, or the guy that worked on it will be gone and noone knows anything.

    So appreciate open source, even if it doesn't work for all the cases, it is better because it can continue, the effort isn't lost. Open source licenses don't promise future maintenance, they are just available as they are

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    With F-Droid apps - as long as they are privacy-friendly and completely localized, they are way safer than if social media app that handles credentials and always calls home becomes unmaintaned for like a week. They just don't take risks usual apps do and don't ask every permission on Earth. So, by design, even less maintained ones serving just one function and not using too much external libs are kinda ok. The danger arise proportionally to their web usage, and these apps usually see more frequent updates and traction.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I like fdroid but the fact that there's no way to back up my app list for transferring to a new device or in case I loose my current device means I've pretty much entirely moved to Obtainium, an app that does support exporting the app list.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Agree on this. Feel fdroid could attach a unique ID to each package version and then insert and update that text file holding it every time. Kind of like a package lock (Python, nvm, etc.)

    Export the file, import on new and it just fetches the necessary versions of apps.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Absolutely, I belive Obtainium just saves the list to a json. My mind was blown when I discovered there was no way to move devices with fdroid.

    Also, definitely make it automatic, it's super easy for app stores. Obtainium updates the backup whenever you add or remove an app.

    Sort of a tangent - I had to set up an automation with Tasker for Fuelio to back it up through the GUI, even though it could definitely do the same thing when you add a fillup, updating the backup.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Also apps can outgrow what the author(s) can do and need to be adopted to continue progress. Or you'd rather work on something new or spend time with family. Or the app is finished, no need to add more features and the code is there if you want to fork and maintain.

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