this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2024
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F-Droid

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F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.

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What are your favorite FOSS app finds of this year?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago
  • StreetComplete: Help complete the OpenStreetMap database by answering simple questions wherever you go
  • HeliBoard: Keyboard add with multilanguage support and user-use learning-prediction
  • RustDesk: RemoteDesk app for PC/Android
[โ€“] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Fossify apps (like finding new friends that look and feel exactly like your old friends ๐Ÿคท

  • FairEmail
  • NetGuard

mull ๐Ÿ˜ข

  • antennaPod
  • newpipe

localSend (we're not brand or os loyal. This helped us a lot with our machine salad

  • AnySoftKeyboard
  • lawnchair
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
  • AntennaPod SSL
  • PipePipe

Software forks are strange.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Unofficial fork that allows self-signed SSL certs, i.e. for gPodder sync on LAN/VPN-only Nextcloud instances.

Edit for those who also wonder, PipePipe is a NewPipe fork with SponsorBlock and other fancy features.

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)
  • Drinkable
  • Grayjay
  • Thunderbird
  • Voyager for Lemmy
  • Podcini.R
  • Emotic
  • LinkDroid
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Can you explain? It's part of the FUTO project and has it's source available here: https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/grayjay

And has releases available to F-Droid through the FUTO repo.

I see the license heavily restricts commercial endeavors with the code, but otherwise seems quite permissive?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Free Software, as defined by the FSF, cannot restrict commercial use, and the OSI says the same about Open Source.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Well, fair I suppose. Definitions and semantics being what they are, and the FSF and OSI certainly have more basis for knowing when something is FOSS.

However, the source is there and the project is open and active, that's good enough for me philosophically.

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Obtainium

IMO the best way to keep one's apps up to date.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Absolutely. I end up using it in conjunction with gplay and fdroid to see which ones are updated sooner. Very useful.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Most of the time it's gplay, if the app is on it... Probably because the developer gets the most traffic through there. Sometimes its days to weeks earlier if its on gplay. Others, github/fdroid is a toss up. Pretty similar

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Is there a good way to verify signatures while using Obtainium? I haven't done it yet but I was thinking about it and it seems quite reckless of me to not do it

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

StreetComplete and Eternity (for Lemmy)

Both great apps I cherish and use.

Quillnote

I literally rely on this for every note / writing books I do

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Just checked out Quillnote, they've archived the repository as it's inactive. Quillpad looks to be the main fork. I'll check it out, thanks for sharing

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

ah right, I use Quillpad.. not Quillnote.. I've used the old one for months before switching, I still get them messed up

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Markor - markdown notes that just works

Organic Maps - someone found a way to make open source maps not terrible, and it isn't.

K9..derbird - mine still says K-9 even though it updated, good mail client.

OSS Weather - tells you the weather, and literally nothing else. Perfection.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

OP, thank you so much for Weather Master! I was using Clima but they lack so many things I would always check websites.

My list:

  • ExifEraser - Erase metadata from pictures
  • Catima - Loyalty Card & Ticket Manager (alternative to Google Wallet)
[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Even though the android version of it has been discontinued, Syncthing remains my top FOSS app. Not sure how it will behave in the future but v1.28.1 works well for now.

[โ€“] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[โ€“] stardust 5 points 1 month ago

Was easy to switch from syncthing to the fork too importing the configuration from syncthing into it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm not switching to Thunderbird I'm sticking with K-9

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is there an explanation of the differences?

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

K-9 was it's own thing, Mozilla came along gave them a lots of money and just forked there project and just renamed it and added their logo

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So it's just a branding thing? That was my understanding already, I thought you meant there were functional differences

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

i'm thinking the mozilla version will be better maintained and have stuff added to it, in the future

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

It believe that too, the project just received more backing, it hasn't been taken over by a random new group

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I'm in the same boat. It is completely fine since the apps only have cosmetic differences.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Organic maps

Also it looks like the foss AOSP SDK was readded into sid. (It was removed from bookworm since it has no maintainers) https://packages.debian.org/sid/android-sdk-platform-23

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I can't totally remember when I found these, but they're relatively fresh on my phone. Couldn't live without them now.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How does Audile perform for you?

I tried it out once and it wasn't as reliable as Shazam at identifying the correct song so I just uninstalled it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Do you normally expect that free as in beer apps are going to be accurate to the degree that a data harvester with years of experience and funding?

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I don't disagree with you but sometimes they are, different use scenarios but these are quite impressive:

KeePassDX
AdAway
KDE Connect
Image Toolbox
Fossify Gallery
Calculator You: Math & Units

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I've never used Shazam but did use the music recognition app on pixels when I was the stock ROM. Audile seems that it gets about 80% of what the Google app would get. I'd imagine that would change depending on the kind of music you're often trying to identify though, Audile is probably working with a smaller database of some genres.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Thx for the paperless mobile share, didn't had an idea about it's existence!

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Image toolbox is so complete that allowed me to disable google photos: smooth rotation, filter, perspective correction, resize and much much more.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Fossify gallery, FreeOTP, Markor text editor, and maybe Jami if I can get it to work on other phones. FreeOTP might have been late 2023 when I got my current phone, but close enough. I'm not sure whether I used Termux before that, on my old phone. Oh yes, Flash Alert, I'm surprised if that isn't standard in Android. It flashes the camera led when the phone rings. That makes it much easier to find the phone if you're not sure where it is, and it is face down. It would be great if it also flashed the screen.

[โ€“] stardust 4 points 1 month ago

Pipepipe has been my go to YouTube app. I like it has sponsor block, and that I can also log into a Gmail account with it that it uses only for age restricted videos so I don't need the YouTube app.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Power Ampache 2 + Ampache/Nextcloud. It's a client for the Ampacheb music server, looks gorgeous, works great and has excellent support.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'm late but thank you so much for making me aware of Obtainium! I'm trying to pull away from Google as much as one can on a Samsung device, which means apps from all different sources.