this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
159 points (92.1% liked)

Open Source

31061 readers
572 users here now

All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!

Useful Links

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
159
Alright boys, I've been converted to the light side and have installed F-Droid. Now what? (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
108 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Basically title. I waited on installing F droid for a long time because my phone threw many scary warnings when I tried a long time ago. But now I have it, and I got some fossify apps, but since there is no "Editor's Picks" on F- droid I dont really know where to go from here.

What apps do you recommend I install first to remove my dependence on closed ecosystems?

What is my vulnerability surface ie, which sort of apps should I watch out for?

Are there any bad faith companies in the open source sphere?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Thanks for the detailed answer. It seems prudent to install from Obtainium.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'll offer a counterpoint to all the Obtainium fans here: F-Droid is good and "middlemen" aren't always pointless.

F-Droid enforces their own inclusion standards on every app they build. This mainly ensures that all apps are built from source and are 100% free (libre) software. When you "go outside the middleman" and "go directly to the source" you lose that assurance.

I don't think it's worth it for slightly faster updates. I enjoy knowing that I have the four freedoms with every app I install.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Tell me more about these four freedoms

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms:

  • The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
  • The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
  • The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
  • The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

- What is Free Software? - The GNU Project

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Thanks for the explanation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

For some it's a trust issue since they F-droid is a middleman however with reproducible builds I don't have that worry. Feels like a good thing to have the code verified twice. I have obtainium as well but had issues with some beta apps I wanted to use like organic maps. Obtainium only works if it is the way it's setup. Organic maps did not follow obtainiums way

Also to use obtainium you actually need to know the app exist, I have a lot of stuff from F-droid I would not have found without it