LWN: Comments on "F-Droid: an alternative to Google Play"

F-Droid: an alternative to Google Play

Garak — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 04:57:19 +0000

A while back I ran across something on their website (issue tracker or forum or something) which suggested that while the current developers weren't interested in going back, they were entirely open to any interested contributors doing what you described for the specific purpose of maintaining support for more archaic and therefore resource-constrained phones. I suspect somebody will get to it soon enough. I too preferred the older UI but can understand how the newer one is more attrative to a wider userbase. There is a lot of room for improvement.

While this article seemed pretty thorough, one missing bit is how I think(?) the privilege extension thing doesn't actually work for newer android versions. From whatever text that stated that, I didn't get the impression there was a clear path forward on that. Though perhaps that is related to my not understanding the bit about per-ROM certificates (?as opposed to one fdroid certificate used by many roms??). Obviously if I'm running lineage 14.1 or aosp 15 I can't imagine there is a real problem other than the requisite amount of elbow grease.

F-Droid: an alternative to Google Play

ber — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 14:45:46 +0000

... because so many customers chose buying pretty over functionality.

SCNR

F-Droid: an alternative to Google Play

madhatter — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 09:47:27 +0000

I agree with all of this (the new version is worse in many ways, the developers aren't interested in going back). I note that the client is not the project; I wonder how painful it would be to code a thinner and less-shiny app that allowed a more traditional experience of interacting with the repository.

F-Droid: an alternative to Google Play

spaetz — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 09:44:15 +0000

I agree that the UI revamp was a mistake, but the developers have been very clear that there is no going back.
So, many of the UI glitches (like no feedback when pressing a button) should be solved rather than turning back the time...

I really miss the distinction between "new apps" and "recently updated apps" which was lost in the revamp. It helped to stumble on interesting new software.

F-Droid: an alternative to Google Play

elvis_ — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 02:03:16 +0000

It was a great source of esoteric open source apps that you wouldn't usually find without knowing where to look on Google Play. I used to love browsing the "what's new" section. I haven't opened it in months, it's just too painful to use.

Now? The UI has gone to a random dog's breakfast, where before it was laid out logically. Why are so many programmers choosing pretty over functionality?

Companion alternative to Google Play Services?

corbet — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 01:41:36 +0000

I think that microG is the droid you're looking for.

Companion alternative to Google Play Services?

ncm — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 01:35:15 +0000

Not to be greedy, but has there been any work on a stub replacement for "play services"? It wouldn't need to do much, just be there for code that insists on finding it. Or is that all cryptographically, hopelessly locked up?

F-Droid: an alternative to Google Play

flussence — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 00:22:44 +0000

F-Droid is great compared to the alternatives, but I think 1.0 was a severe mistake. It looks like an iPhone app now, information is strewn across weird places and collapsed dropdowns, and it feels totally unresponsive.

The post-1.0 update process is painful: hit the tiny download button, wait a quarter of a minute with no visual feedback, hope it pops up a download complete notification, then tap each app's (even smaller) install button and wait... and wait... and pray it actually installs instead of throwing an error, downloading a second time, or simply doing nothing (again, there's not even visual feedback that it received the button click).

F-Droid: an alternative to Google Play

madhatter — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 16:13:11 +0000

I've been using F-Droid as my sole source for apps as long as I've been using Android, and I've been very happy with it. One other good aspect to it that the article doesn't dwell on is that licensing is a salient part of each F-Droid application: each must have a free licence, and each must tell you, in a standardised form, what that licence is. The information was on the main menu in the old (pre-1.0) F-Droid, but even now it's only one menu down inside each application's detailed listing.