F-Droid: Android FOSS app store
f-droid.org
f-droid.org
There's Neo Store[0] which is a fork of Droid-ify[1] which itself is a fork of Foxy Droid[2] (no longer updated). Personally I use Neo Store, includes more repos by default and can auto update apps.
[0]: https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Store
I was a user of the latter initially when it started as a fork of Foxy Droid. At one point development slowed down and Neo Store was created and had active development, and I've used that ever since. Both are still actively developed as far as I know.
My experience has been the opposite: droidify has been more "stable" than neostore for me.
You can get it through... regular fdroid!
From what I learned, only apps that target Android 12and above could have this background update feature. I'm on Android 13 but none of the apps I use updated. I had to switch back to using the f-droid privileged extension.
I'm on Android 13 currently, I don't have root, stock OS. All my apps update, including ones that are marked in Fdroid as "created for older Android releases". I use around 15 apps from that source and none caused me much trouble. A few times had to invoke installation manually, but honestly I think it would update automatically with more patience on my side.
That's why I'm so pumped about Fdroid Basic - it's a much better experience.
Sorting by "last updated" doesn't really tell you anything about the app's quality, and I really do not want to install and try 30 different apps solving the same problem just to see which one is better. Plenty of people have done so before me, so just tell me which one is the most popular!
But surely there should be a way to reconcile no-spying with usage reporting through some voluntary means. For example, Debian allows users to install the popularity-contest package.
Why? You don't need to do tracking, just have a counter on the server that increases every time someone downloads the repository. What does this have to do with FOSS?
The only "old" app I keep using is Barcode Scanner (com.google.zxing.client.android), since it's a classic that will likely never stop working.
It's available here: https://dbeley.github.io/fdroid-insights/
I also like this CLI for bulk downloading apks for initializing a new device over adb: https://github.com/mvdan/fdroidcl
To get releases faster there is obtanium: https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium
Just a heads up.
https://github.com/SimonHalvdansson/Harmonic-HN
I'm still searching for "just right". And while I know that posting comments is an experimental feature in Glider, I was pretty miffed today when I lost a somewhat lengthy reply that I had spent the previous thirty minutes drafting.
Nevertheless, I know better than to blame anyone but myself for the loss. I should have been copying my progress to a safer location the entire time, and the source is right there, waiting for my patch. As always, the joys of free software abound.
Written from the aforementioned app.
F-Droid has everything I need, and conveniently provides direct apk download if I want to restore the device without going online.
I'm not here to talk politics, especially for such a loaded statement. "allying"? I "ally" with no one.
Also, my choice is not political but technical: I have a color eink device android where I do everything in the console with tmux and a Lenovo Bluetooth keyboard.
I have root, the device is degoogled, and I have removed from flash (mtd) what I didn't like. I use it mostly offline, but it's firewalled (with iptables) when I need to use ssh for example.
Best of all: it came ready to be hacked!
Maybe you believe your google device is more "protected", but I have a different opinion.
Given the amount of effort companies like google put into trying to insert themselves into our lives, I suggest a healthy skepticism to their claims of "privacy" or "protection".
This time, I got myself a BigMe. You can get one on https://store.bigme.vip/ the URL looks suspicious but don't fall for the official looking bigmestore.com: it's run by a dropshipper called good reader, who apparently impersonates several Chinese companies by squatting the .com domain name and pretending to be them, just to raise the prices and in return generally give you a negative service (slower shipping, not saying the truth about unit in stocks or shipping dates...)
If you need to know more about this dropshipper shady methods, use your favorite search engine with "goodeareader scam" and learn from the various user reports, the BBB ratings or trustpilot.
The difficulty was getting a legit Bigme from the official store, but the hardware is great: I think the quality is higher than the Boox (which I already liked a lot), but unfortunately it seems to have a lot more google software than your usual Chinese device.
OTOH, there's also a 5G module in the BigMe, so I could get data anywhere... it's complicated: I might return to Boox when they have a better lineup, but getting either a Boox or a BigMe is a good decision if you like the slower refresh rate of eink and the "more visceral" feel of eink compared to emissive technologies (TFT, OLED...)
I'll try to write some guide like my previous one for the Lenovo X1 Fold: https://csdvrx.github.io/
I think it's a better choice to use a device from Taiwan or South Korea (perhaps more so than the US), but it's begrudgingly that I deal with the Google stuff on my Samsung, and I have less Google stuff than I would if not for it being Samsung.
I don't think owning an Android phone that requires a Google Account is allegiance to Google, but the way Samsung is providing stuff that requires a Google account kinda is, but I can see why, and hopefully one day they stop. I also don't think buying a phone from a Chinese company is allegiance to the CCP.
That said, I'd be happy to be called an ally to Taiwan. I'm not sure if I've earned that yet, but if anyone has any ideas how, let me know!
It's my dream setup come true, so others might like it?
I do NOT want to depend on a large company that tries to force itself into everything people do (search = google, email = gmail, handhelds = android, phone number = fi)
Chinese devices are easy to flash, reflash and mod.
I'm less a fan of the google pixel hardware: eInk devices provides a different experience.
In the "usual" (Google, Samsung...) western brands, there are no good eink pocket (cellphone sized or less, like the inkpalm or hisense) or normal sized eink tablet (>8" screen) alternatives, especially if you want color.
The kindles are more like phablets, and have lots of software limitations preventing you from flashing what you want. On top of that, their eink screens are always black and white, and most often very small.
I have a color eink tablet with a 10" screen. Outside of Chinese companies, there isn't anything available. If there was such a google pixel device and I could reflash it and mod it as easily as Chinese devices and without limitations, I would consider it.
I have only found apps calling home.
If you think some malware is baked into the wifi firmware, I can't disprove that.
> I think that's much less likely on pixel devices, especially with the grapheneos guys watching those devices.
More eyeballs is better, but if we're talking about malware in the wifi firmware, I don't think graphene team can catch that either.
That's for Xiaomi. Others don't need that.
If anyone knows and can elaborate on that very version, I would like to know more. I installed it, and it looks better to me. It claims it can update the apps without root, but it also states that it’s targeted towards Android 13. So I’m not sure whether to use it with Android 8 device.
> The Basic version of F-Droid Client has a reduced feature set (e.g. no nearby share and no panic feature). It targets Android 13 and can do unattended updates without privileged extension or root.
Neither give you an easy time. Google wants regular work from a dev (updating target SDK, filling out forms on the Play Console). F-Droid sometimes just doesn't build the app for days. (For my app it took about 8 months to initially appear on f-droid due to some bug, but hey, at least there's real people to talk to :))
Some projects like NewPipe have their own repository which has to be added manually.
It's annoying but mostly not a problem.
Then it took a week to show up at F-Droid. Less than 4 hours on the Play Store.
I recommend adding the IzzyOnDroid repository to F-Droid, and then getting NewPipe x SponsorBlock. No really... Enjoy!