For posterity, but also for forks if the repos go down, I have created https://github.com/SimplerMobileTools and downloaded all the original repos, branches, and tags which will soon be uploaded there.

I have already got SM Gallery compiling, so thats a start, and will upload all the repos tomorrow when its not so late.

Note: Any former maintainer of SMT will be added on to SrMT upon request.

EDIT: All forks updated with notice of rationale and link to this discussion.

EDIT2: https://github.com/FossifyOrg is a soft fork created by one of the current maintainers. I will keep the hard fork up just in case.

Terrible news. These apps are really great. Reminds me of what happened to Quick Pick and ES file explorer and u could also add Nova Launcher. More apps assigned to the graveyard. Hopefully they get forked quickly and updated when needed.

Wtf. I paid for the apps to avoid exactly this....

Too many people think the "free" in free software means "without monetary cost". Development costs money. If nobody pays, it gets sold

Incoming, "We don't plan to change anything you love about these apps!"

Narrator: "They were planning to change EVERYTHING you love about these apps."

The death of Quik Pic was when it was sold

I swapped the Simple after that, so this blows fucking ass.

Looks like one of the maintainers/contributors has already setup a fork!

https://github.com/FossifyX

All the code is GPLv3 so it will remain FOSS. There's no need to immediately switch to other apps. You can optionally fork then build the apps for yourself.

Ugh.

I migrated to Simple Gallery after QuickPic was similarly sold to a sketchy buyer. Been using it for so many years, supported the dev(s) by purchasing some of the apps and the "Thank You" app they have.

Time to look for yet another gallery app.

We can't have this happening every time. There needs to be a better way to support and sustain such apps.

Why? I hate this another loss for us. This year is pain in ass for me.

Well, that sucks.

Guess I'll just stop updating and keep an eye out for forks that are maintained.

I guess I don't need a gallery app..

Thankfully I only have them via Obtainium. Flip the "track only" option to on and wait and see. Like someone else said, I'm hopeful there'll be forks for these soon enough. I'm off to fork the repos for myself anyway, just in case.

Edit: for those that are self-hosting some form of git, is would be great if more people did this, for archival purposes. I've simply left the public fork of all 19 repos in my Github account, but have mirrored those to my private Forgejo instance.

At any point I can sync the GH forks then mirror those down to my local instance. Until the original repos get dismantled, of course.

Everyone has a price.

Damn it. There was a big extension that did this too. The first thing the guys did? implement a credentials stealer.

This is terrible news! I am going to struggle to find a replacement for the gallery app.

Damn I actually paid for a few of these apps. What does this mean for purchase on Android?

I paid for the apps to avois this...

Big F, they had some good apps.

Damn, I recently donated to them, and this is how it turned out.

Terrible to see.

Damn, i will really miss the Gallery app

For anyone looking for an alternative to Gallery, Gallery by Iacoblonut looks better, and you can use Amaze to edit images.

Noooooo! I love their gallery app. Guess it's time to turn off auto-update on it.

Thank you for sharing this!

Recently on their blog --> Aug 29, 2023

Terrible News!!!
The developer of these apps I've been using for years, and who hasn't seen a single penny in donations from me in all that time, has decided to sell them!
Now I'm really mad at them for selling out, and am forced to move to another set of apps someone else has made for me to use free of charge.

Finally, Kissinger is dead — but for the karmic balance, even SMT gets enshittified.