Why do people still use the "play store" when other repositories like f-droid are arguably better and perfectly available? This is beyond me. The terms of service of the google play store are callous and unacceptable.
Google Play is the app store for most android users (at least in the west).
Since then I've head that the F-Droid operators insist on signing all apps themselves, instead of the developers' signature. That's as bad as the TLS inteceptors that insist on accepting an extra CA.
Some people seem to think that F-Droid is obviously preferable to Googleplay. That is, at the very least, not obvious.
BTW. In my case the app they urged me to replace the stock keyboard with a version that had been built without support for Norwegian. Is the language data in Android non-free?
Most apps aren’t possible to be built reproducibly, though, as the Android developer toolkit was never designed for reproducible builds and relies on stuff like filesystem ordering of files (which differs between machines).
Reproducible builds are the best option for such a store :)
They do reproducible builds starting from publicly available source. Given the AOSP design where code signatures are mandatory and updates are only allowed if signed by the same key, they're taking the best feasible approach.
F-Droid can't replace a version installed form GPlay with it's own version as they are (except a handful) signed with a different key.
It also won't even show you these versions anymore unless you enable an expert settings options.
Even once you've installed it, it can't auto-update apps.
Installing F-Droid is easy, and installing and managing apps through it is also easy. I prefer it when I can find a suitable app.
but nevertheless harder than installing Netflix
> installing and managing apps through it is also easy
but updates are not automatic (unless you root)
I don't dispute that F-Droid is not terribly difficult to use, but the original statement that "It's easier to use than the Play Store" is obviously false as soon as you take into account the mechanics of getting it installed.
As an aside, there must be a better way to keep track of new technologies. I hate not recognizing something important.
Even if 2) does not require rooting your device or voiding warranty it's 1) that damps on the spread of the alternatives, because people in general don't know they have a choice; because they don't look for the alternative as the problem of "how do I get the apps?" is solved for them right at the start.
Amazon tablets do not have the Google Play store.
That being said, Amazon Fire tablets are good cheap devices if you want to experiment with custom ROMs and truly Free app stores like F-Droid without spending a lot of money or sacrificing your main device. Just don't trust FireOS to be any less privacy invasive than Google's Android.
There are Lollipop based ROMs for all 2017 and older Fire tablets (Amazon's FireOS is based on Lollipop so it's an easy base to start from) and there is work in progress to port Oreo to the 2017 Fire tablets:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/hd8-hd10/general/rom-androi...
Context is not hard people. Don't nit because you can.
But I use some apps that are non-free and are perfectly fine with those apps being non-free and want to use these apps anyway. So f-droid will never be a full replacement for me.
Afaik there's no readily available payment system. It's not impossible to build one and integrate it with F-Droid though I think.