
So long, farewell and goodbye - danjoc
https://forum.f-droid.org/t/so-long-farewell-and-goodbye/600
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victornomad
F-droid is one of the main things that keeps me in the Android world. I hope
it continues but I suspect one day Google will make it more difficult for them
to survive.....

Android is becoming more and more Googlified and most apps come with google
services. Even the simplest app tracks you in some way. I love F-droid because
installing an app from there is like a proof that the app has some "ethics"
and will respect you and your privacy.

I think Android has been like a Trojan horse for many of us. It came as an
"open and free" platform that attracted many of us, developers and users. But
now is reeeeally difficult to escape from the google realm.

We need more alternatives!

~~~
nolok
> I hope it continues but I suspect one day Google will make it more difficult
> for them to survive

Google has no reason nor interest to do that. There are several alternative
stores out there, and moving to kill them would alienate several of their
partners, as well as possibly open a legal case against them in some
jurisdiction. On top of that, size wise, F-Droid doesn't even register for
them.

Honestly, this feeling if you have it is more of a delusion of persecution
than anything tangible.

> Android is becoming more and more Googlified and most apps come with google
> services.

That I agree, but sadly it's still one of the better timelines: google play
services is an app that they can update to provide better support and services
for app, and this was the solution they chose to fix the early days of "no
manufacturer update their phone's OS, so new app can't rely on new features".

Is it perfect ? Nope. Is it great ? Nope. But when you have to compose in a
world where manufacturer lock their phone so you can't update the OS unless
they say so, it was kind of the natural path to move a many features as you
could to a library like this.

> I love F-droid because installing an app from there is like a proof that the
> app has some "ethics" and will respect you and your privacy.

F-Droid is a "repository of free and open source" project, it has nothing to
do with respecting user privacy or "having ethics". While there may be some
correlation between the two, it's not a given by far.

The F-droid project itself makes a guarantee of not tracking you, and they say
they try to check apps they deliver to ensure they don't have abuse of privacy
built in, but they go out of their way to make it clear it's not guaranteed
and that app may or may not have such abuse in their code.

> I think Android has been like a Trojan horse for many of us. It came as an
> "open and free" platform that attracted many of us, developers and users.
> But now is reeeeally difficult to escape from the google realm.

When has Android been more open than today exactly ? And I'm not saying that
in a "android is becoming more and more open" way, I'm saying it has always
been like this.

> We need more alternatives!

Agreed

~~~
Drdrdrq
> but sadly it's still one of the better timelines: google play services is an
> app that they can update to provide better support and services for app, and
> this was the solution they chose to fix the early days of "no manufacturer
> update their phone's OS, so new app can't rely on new features".

I agree that their approach to the problem of updates was the right one. But
they went too far - they also closed a vital part of OS from their partners
and from users. They could have open-sourced it, but they didn't. I know it
makes sense from business POV (Samsung was becoming dangerous to them), but it
sucks for opensource alternatives.

------
elorm
Being a long time f-droid user, i panicked a bit when i saw the title.

It's really sad to see Boris leave, considering the amount of work he puts in.
You'd go over to make a little contribution and be feeling yourself, then you
look over and see Boris who's made about 9000 commits and you're immensely
humbled.

------
simplehuman
Not sure I understand.

a) lead dev is stepping down

b) lead dev has not groomed a successor

c) this is where I am lost. he says patches welcome... But who will merge if
he has no time or has no successor?

~~~
iSnow
I think there's an implied

d) No one stepped up and lead dev has stopped caring

~~~
gpvos
Well, in a comment he says he'll stay on the IRC channel to answer questions.

------
ianai
I'm more curious what he's switched to if not Apple.

~~~
hasbot
He says in a reply:

Laptop, SSH, paper :). I wasn't a heavy mobile user in general and only got
interested in cellphones when they became more PC-like. So with 3.5 years in
F-Droid, I only have about 4-5 years of actual mobile phone usage. Coming from
a more old-school unix environment, reverting back.

~~~
romanovcode
So he basically doesn't have a phone? That's pretty hardcore.

~~~
kerneis
At least not a _smart_ phone. That's my case as well, very happy with my dual-
sim Nokia 216. The internet can always wait until I'm back home or at work.

~~~
Markoff
for me personally smartphone is just more convenient than telling out laptop,
opening it, waiting for start compared to smartphone always running at hand
and seem by looking at statistics most of the people are in same boat and PC
is dying

------
Animats
That's annoying. I use F-Droid, and have all Google services removed from my
Android phone. ZANavi for GPS, Firefox for browsing, and the Android mail
client connected to an IMAP server for mail. Works fine.

~~~
Markoff
why not Maps.me? nice UI and doesn't require play services

~~~
tomcooks
With every update it gets heavier with annoyances (notifications, booking.com
integration, etc) and less usable. Dropped it in favor of OSMand

~~~
Markoff
osmand has just horrible interface, that's good way how to scare someone from
using OSM, it's fore sure in leading top 10 of apps with the worst interface
on top of great service

