Just to get it out there… I checked this out about a year ago. It’s not completely open source. The project consists of many executables and “pre complied dependencies” that don’t appear to share matching checksums which may indicate modifications of some sort. Looks like a great tool, but I’m extremely skeptical of what’s going on under the hood.
Hopefully they do truly open source it and prove me wrong, I’d love to give it a try some day.
Important note: app developers don’t publish their apps on the official F-Droid repository. Other people (maintainers) download source code and compiling these apps. Therefore, updates are delayed by a week. You cannot update the app from other source because F-Droid version signed by a different key, so you must reinstall the app, deleting all the data.
I started using Obtainium to get updates directly from GitHub. It also has support for F-Droid and many other sources. I use F-Droid website mostly to discover apps.
Depends on whether you’re going to install apps from the official F-Droid repository or not. Third party F-droid repos (like IzzyOnDroid) are not affected by this.
Suppose you have some app (a hypothetical Lemmy app) installed from the official F-Droid repo. You logged in an account, changed some settings. Then the developer announces an update: new features, bug and security fixes. It is published on GitHub and Google Play. F-Droid version will come after a few days, when the maintainer builds the app from source and publishes that update.
You may don’t want to wait till update comes to F-droid. But you can’t install it from GitHub or Google Play, because it is signed by a different key. You’ll have to reinstall the app, which will erase your settings and require logging in again.
This is the hassle you probably may encounter in the future. If you want to avoid it, install official packages from the developers (from GitHub or Google Play). Obtainium can check for updates on GitHub, official and third-party F-Droid repos, and more.
For some it’s a trust issue since they F-droid is a middleman however with reproducible builds I don’t have that worry. Feels like a good thing to have the code verified twice. I have obtainium as well but had issues with some beta apps I wanted to use like organic maps. Obtainium only works if it is the way it’s setup. Organic maps did not follow obtainiums way
Also to use obtainium you actually need to know the app exist, I have a lot of stuff from F-droid I would not have found without it
Your right, now I did remove FFUpdater, I’ve got Mull updated adding DivestOS Official repo to Droidify (included, but you need to enable), and Cromite from GitHub.
Because Mull from default repo is 1 version and 2 weeks behind.
I feel very dumb but I just installed it and I don’t get the logic: do I have to enter every app into Obtainium to make it happen or is there some kind of auto discovery / import that I can use?
Thanks for your answer that’s what I was afraid of, that’s too much of a chore to hunt for every source and put it in the app, I’ll pass for now and keep getting (more or less) delayed updates as usual
That specific repository has no releases so it won’t work AFAIK. You need a repository with releases, that have apk attached. (Typically the developer would set up a CI workflow to build and attach apk for every release)
Edit: For example AuroraStore has releases with apks. So you can just enter gitlab repo for AuroraStore into Obtainium and it will install it and keep it updated.
Any benefit over just downloading the APK directly without managing it through Obtanium? I ask cause I’m guessing that for Mull, since there are no releases on its GitLab repo, it’ll just have to be downloaded directly.
This looks interesting, but I don’t understand what it’s for. I read through the readme, but came out none the wiser. What exactly is a compose sequence?
A compose key (sometimes called multi key) is a key on a computer keyboard that indicates that the following (usually 2 or more) keystrokes trigger the insertion of an alternate character, typically a precomposed character or a symbol.
It’s a method to combine several characters on your keyboard and use it to create a special character which is not on the keyboard. For example “ and e produces ë. This tool allows you to configure those combinations.
But thanks for the feedback. I’ll update the readme to add some more context.
What about the time they fired their artists and then immediately wrote a blog post congratulating themselves for making AI art from a model trained on the ex-employees’ art. Inspiring.
Hi, quick question. I already have some apps installed via play store, thats also available on F-Droid. Is there any advantage to uninstalling them, and installing them back, from F-Droid?
Most privacy tools from the PlayStore are light versions “decaffeinated” by Google. Google hate all apps which avoid his control. Recommended app for Android is InviZible Pro (FOSS)
I’m honestly blown away by whomever finds this surprising. This is Microsoft we’re talking about. Everything they touch turns into this. Taking what is not theirs, using it for profit, and not even giving credit where credit is due.
As a user, if something like this was implemented in anything I use, as long as it’s opt-in (not opt-out), I would probably agree after I make sure I’m ok with the data I would be sharing.
Opt-out is always an instant “hell no” for me. It feels too much like a pusher.
You don’t need the question mark. If something is for-profit (or can be used for profit) then sooner or later it will be enshittified.
They have teams of people whose entire job is figuring out ways to wring a few more cents from somebody. Put them at the helm of a company that’s stood for 1000 years and they’ll be thrilled at how easy it will be to use that name to sell plastic dogshit at a premium price.
I’m not a developer so I’m not very familiar with this world. But it kind of amazes me that the code for so many open source projects are hosted by Microsoft. Isn’t there a FOSS alternative? edit: seems Gitlab is an alternative. Then the question is, why are people using microsoft products?
The power of git ( the backbone of github ) comes in that you can easily take a repository and move it to a different server. Its like, 3 commands? ( git vlone, git add remote, git push ). So if people would leave github, nothing is lost :)
Github is designed to centralize git (as the word “hub” suggests). You can still migrate away code, issues and wikis, but contributors, followers, wiki editors, issue subscribers, visibility in general and github stars are locked in. Discoverability matters to projects trying to attract contributors.
Agreed there, but its still a source control platform. Its still git. I’d argue the code is the most important part and followers, subscribers and stars (whatever those may do) are a secundairy functionality that a developer doesnt necesarily care about. The most important part is the git repo and everything linked with it imo
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