For the past 15 years, F-Droid has provided a safe and secure haven for Android users around the world to find and install free and open source apps. When co...
  • amos@mander.xyzEnglish
    40·
    4 days ago

    Considering Google and Apple both donate to Trump, we really need an alternative: Linux mobile OS. A linux OS that can be installed on a range of phones, from cheap to more expensiove. Just buy the phone and install the OS, as you do on PCs.

  • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
    1167·
    4 days ago

    This is something the EU should really regulate, unfortunately they are busy regulating oat milk drink and veggieburgers.

    • persona_non_gravitas@piefed.socialEnglish
      581·
      4 days ago

      I contacted the EU DMA team a while back. Part of the response:

      We have taken note of your concerns and, while we cannot comment on ongoing dialogue with gatekeepers, these considerations will form part of our assessment of the justifications for the verification process provided by Google.

      So at least some part of the bureaucracy are aware of it.

      • med@sh.itjust.works
        7·
        3 days ago

        The thing I don’t understand about any of this, is why can’t you comment on ongoing dialogues with the gatekeepers?

        I understand the basic tenants of keeping the discussion closed until official statements can be prepared, to prevent the press and the public from going off half cocked. That makes sense for private matters.

        This is not private. I can’t understand what is the point of negotiating law for people if they can’t even see the ongoing process?

    • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
      28·
      4 days ago

      1. The EU hasn’t even been able to stop Apple from doing this shit.

      2. The EU is actively preventing their own people from leaving the Google ecosystem with the Play Integrity API in their own apps.

    • mistermodal@lemmy.ml
      171·
      4 days ago

      I’m confused why so many open source developers think that the EU is going to be the foster parents of FOSS communities

  • dreaperxz@lemmy.zip
    6·
    3 days ago

    Will the F-Droid website shutdown as a whole if the project ends?

    I’ve gone back to flip phone. Yes, an XP3 Plus running android; but with no app store and no apps that use Internet. Data, and WIFI is off forever. It just comes with basic apps out of the box. Nothing Google is on it. It’s just for phone calls.

    And I’ve gone back to a standard MP3 player. All this because the smartphone ecosystem is utterly chaotic and fragile. Anything smart is nothing but a headache to me now. Smartphones are anything but convenient to me today (they are more like dopamine slot machines with the trash social media apps that come pre-installed on them to keep people scrolling).

    But I have an old Samsung tablet running LineageOS that I just use for reading. Never put it online. And I see no reason to update any apps. Maybe in the future, I might consider installing other apps (highly unlikely). But I’m fine with how it is. And since Syncthing is no longer an option on Android, I’ll just use Rsync to sync my books directly to the micro SD card I use with it.

    I don’t use anything Google anymore (yes, not even YouTube). And I really don’t want to install Google’s shitty app store and make a new Google account (after getting rid of all my Google accounts). This is why I’m wondering what the plan is for the F-Droid project.

    Is it time to just dump anything Android too? Unless it’s a scaled down version of Android that comes with the device like my flip phone?

      • dreaperxz@lemmy.zip
        2·
        3 days ago

        That’s what I heard. They discontinued it. But it’s been forked.

        I just think it’s best to drop anything Android now; and truthfully, just stop bothering with smartphones at this point. Or don’t use Android for much other than in a locked down phone that comes out of the factory with no Google BS; like the XP3 Plus flip phone I bought for a fraction of the price that a trash smartphone would be.

        To be frank, I don’t use Android for much of anything now. I’ve completely given up the smartphone. I don’t miss it. And honestly, it’s a relief.

    • Catalyst@lemmy.mlEnglish
      17·
      4 days ago

      There’s nothing set in stone yet. Google just committed to doing it is all that’s happened so far. But the response against it has been pretty heavy and we’ll see how it goes. We have to speak up right now and organize our communities like this post is doing.

      • cardfire@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        292·
        4 days ago

        Samsung s22 and s25, checking in. Graphene won’t be viable for the vast, overwhelming majority of Android users today or in the coming seasons.

        I hope people figure out some kind of virtualization/docker-containerization solution to the coming Goo-lag.

        • Ferk@lemmy.ml
          142·
          4 days ago

          Samsung s22 and s25

          I’m still holding some hope that maybe Samsung’s flavor of the OS won’t have the restriction of requiring Google keys. Specially considering that Samsung has its own “Galaxy Store” with app submissions controlled by them, not Google.

          Though it’s possible they might simply extend the signatures accepted to include also the ones signed by them ^^U …still it would give them a competitive edge to remove the restriction so they might be incentivized to do it.

          • Kevin@lemmy.ca
            2·
            4 days ago

            If they want a lot of play store banking apps + other things that opt into play protect to work they’ll need to add the signature verification requirement.

            • Ferk@lemmy.ml
              4·
              4 days ago

              Will the banks in Korea, EU and many other areas where Samsung phones are very common keep that restriction if it meant alienating that many users? I doubt it. That’s why I think the support of a big player on this would be a killing move.

              Also I’m not 100% convinced that it’s impossible to have some verification without it depending on this one change.

              • Kevin@lemmy.ca
                2·
                3 days ago

                That’s a really good point, basically throw their weight around a bit eh?

            • cardfire@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              3·
              4 days ago

              I’m even willing to use the web apps or webpages for banking, if the browsers can make the handshakes. I’ll forfeit using the bank first party apps, if their websites are full featured.

              • Kevin@lemmy.ca
                1·
                4 days ago

                100%, my bank thankfully doesn’t tick that box, but if it did I wouldn’t think twice about dropping the app. Freedom is more important.

          • cardfire@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            4·
            4 days ago

            And the bootloader is now locked down across Samsung’s ecosystem, as of this year. Sucks.

            If you move to using an unsecured “chinaphone” as an alternative to the big three handset vendors, then it’s unlikely they are target devices for the myriad of uncertified ROM’s.

            I think we are going to need software solutions that can run on major Androdis distributions across the variety of hardware.

            I think we’re going to need something like UTM or Docker (virtualization or containerization) for running our unsigned Android apps and services, and I don’t know how feasible it will be.

      • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
        52·
        4 days ago

        Even on GrapheneOS, sure it uses a sandboxed Google Play Store, which is obviously great for users, but the developers of Android apps still have to hand over their personal data to Google specifically as this new decree from the Lords of the Google fiefdom entails.

        Because FOSS developers rightly value their personal privacy, this decree effectively kills incentive for FOSS developers to continue making and maintaining apps for Android. Running GrapheneOS doesn’t circumvent this.

        It’s like I’m saying “I’m hungry” and you say “Go for a run, it’s healthy for you.” I mean… it’s true that running is healthy… but the act of running doesn’t solve the problem of me being hungry…

          • jkYkM7a@lemmy.mlEnglish
            4·
            4 days ago

            Too, you can shove Google into its own separate User from everything else and keep it locked down in an always on VPN or the like. You don’t owe it the primary user on your phone. You can even keep that user shutdown such that none of it runs until you explicitly switch over and run it.

            GrapheneOS is pretty dang impressive.

        • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
          4·
          4 days ago

          I use FOSS apps for everything, I only have one special user profile with google play store for my stupid bank and credit card.

          For everything else there are alternatives that don’t need google play.

          • Chulk@lemmy.mlEnglish
            41·
            4 days ago

            I think you’re missing the point. You say you use FOSS apps for everything. Do you download them from F-Droid?

            From the article:

            The future of this elegant and proven system was put in jeopardy last month, when Google unilaterally decreed that Android developers everywhere in the world are going to be required to register centrally with Google. In addition to demanding payment of a registration fee and agreement to their (non-negotiable and ever-changing) terms and conditions, Google will also require the uploading of personally identifying documents, including government ID, by the authors of the software, as well as enumerating all the unique “application identifiers” for every app that is to be distributed by the registered developer.

            The F-Droid project cannot require that developers register their apps through Google, but at the same time, we cannot “take over” the application identifiers for the open-source apps we distribute, as that would effectively seize exclusive distribution rights to those applications.

            If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project and other free/open-source app distribution sources as we know them today, and the world will be deprived of the safety and security of the catalog of thousands of apps that can be trusted and verified by any and all. F-Droid’s myriad users will be left adrift, with no means to install — or even update their existing installed — applications. (How many F-Droid users are there, exactly? We don’t know, because we don’t track users or have any registration: “No user accounts, by design”)

            • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
              3·
              4 days ago

              I get my apps through Obtainium. I usually find the developers pages where they publish source code and the apk and then add them to Obtainium and install from there and let it manage the updates.

              Most of the apps I use are also available on f-droid and some probably have play store versions as well.

      • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
        29·
        4 days ago

        On one phone. The rest of are shit out of luck because we didn’t buy the one phone from the company that is causing the problem in the first place.

      • cardfire@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        121·
        4 days ago

        This isn’t a scalable solution. There aren’t enough affordable, used Pixels for everyone in the ecosystem to adopt between now and the Goo-lag.

        • jkYkM7a@lemmy.mlEnglish
          3·
          4 days ago

          One con, too, is that Graphene drops support when Google does, limiting the options around buying quite older models and running them for a long time to keep price low.

          I still appreciate GrapheneOS and understand why they drop support, but it is definitely a con compared to other ROMs which trend towards extending support longer.

        • eleitl@lemmy.zip
          4·
          4 days ago

          Alternative ROM market is fringe de la fringe, so there’s sufficient used hardware available. I bought my 7a for 320 eur new and my tablet for 400 eur new though, so the Google tax (or, GOS tax, rather) was moderate.