F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
f-droid.org
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.
  • lejsh@lemmy.ml
    ·
    1 year ago

    Are they planning on modernizing the app for Material You? It feels out of place in my phone in 2023.

    edit: all the people who suggested Droid-ify know what's up. Thanks, guys!

    • regalia@literature.cafe
      ·
      1 year ago

      I have a lot of complaints about this too, but namely lack of seamless updates is baffling to me.

      Luckily I found Droid-ify and solves both those problems. Also has the common repos frequently added, like IzzyOnDroid, easily pre-available to enabled in the settings.

      This definitely replaced the archaeic fdroid client for me, they desperately need an overhaul as it's a terrible first impression.

  • limeaide@lemmy.ml
    ·
    1 year ago

    I know this thread is already a little old, but here is the list of my favorite apps from F-Droid/Izzy. I use a lot of these almost daily and just thought I would share these in case someone might find a new app they find useful

    • Eternity (Infinity for Lemmy)
    • Buckwheat (Budgeting)
    • Aegis (Authentication)
    • Lawnchair (Pixel-like launcher)
    • Quillnotes (Markdown notes app)
    • Forkyz (Crosswords)
    • Geometric Weather
    • Imagepipe (Removes exif data and reduces pics)
    • AntennaPod (Podcast app)
    • Olauncher (Beautiful and minimal text based launcher)
    • keepcarrot [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      NewPipe lets you listen to youtube videos without the screen on (and also download them or just the audio).

      Probably the main thing I use

    • peanutdust@lemm.ee
      ·
      1 year ago

      redreader, newpipe, session messenger(needs repo thing from website), aurora store, simple gallery pro

    • temptest [any]
      ·
      1 year ago

      A lot of the utility is it having apps with similar capabilities but without the same kind of privacy invasions, and with better description of what anti-features an app has. So as far as 'the average user', I'd just say alternative apps (or even the same ones, if you're already using FOSS apps) to the same ones they'd use on Play Store, and a few of the games.

  • elbowgrease@lemm.ee
    ·
    1 year ago

    I've always had a removedling worry that downloading apps from 3rd party app stores came with a higher risk of getting apps with viruses and spyware.

    any truth to this?

      • temptest [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        This is a bit of a fallacious point in this context - it suggests:

        • apps will be investigated by its users (not guaranteed, nor even likely for unpopular apps)
        • an app will even have users capable of detecting malware (I don't know squat about phone malware patterns, so I wouldn't be effective at it even if I did scan through thousands of lines of code)
    • dmrzl@programming.dev
      ·
      1 year ago

      What I can tell you is that Google was extremely detailed in their monitoring of my apps - even looking up e.g. rate limits of the steam api to check if I properly deal with those. And I pick that example since I don't want to talk about the ways I mishandled user data out of negligence or ignorance.

      Back then I perceived it as harassment. Today I will certainly not install any apps that didn't pass their testing.

      And we're not even talking about deliberate malware but simple incompetence. I would consider the average hobby app project to be borderline malware and a proper QA needs qualified personnel. I don't see how F-Droid can ever reach those standards.

    • MrSqueezles@lemm.ee
      ·
      1 year ago

      Even small companies have to deal with, "supply chain", attacks, criminals putting code into open source repositories to steal data and get access to servers. App stores are major targets too.

      There have been weather apps that need your location to show you weather and oops we also send your location history to our data center in China and sell that data.

      There have been, "document scanner", apps that help you take pictures of things like credit card statements and did we not mention we send those images to Russian servers?

      Do use a major brand phone like Samsung, keep your OS up to date, and don't expose private info to these apps or give them special privileges, especially, "accessibility", or, "screen reader", and you should be okay.

      • temptest [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        What is your justification for this claim?

        I use F-Droid as my main app store, and while I trust most of the apps on there and haven't found any asking for permissions they don't need, I wouldn't claim any Android app store is more secure than the Play Store. This post goes into technical detail comparing the two: https://privsec.dev/posts/android/f-droid-security-issues/ - Note: emphasis in the conclusion mentioning that these criticisms may or may not really matter, depending on your threat model. (as an aside - if anyone here doesn't know what a threat model is, determine yours before participating in any privacy community or you'll just end up with useless paranoia)

        That said, I would guess that Play Store may have a higher risk of malicious apps only due to the fact that there are far, far, far, far more potential victims, and being the default app store, victims less likely to be technically experienced enough to notice false apps. So, almost all attackers will probably aim for the most targets and only bother targeting the Play Store, despite the extra challenges.

        [tagging @elbowgrease@lemm.ee ]

          • temptest [any]
            ·
            1 year ago

            I did make up my mind, and both I and the article both explicitly emphasise people to apply the facts it presents to their own circumstances. What you just wrote is very condescending and insulting.

            • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
              ·
              1 year ago

              Well my intention was not to offend you. However, I still firmly believe that using a proprietary app store run by google is not as good as a app store that takes libre software as a priority.

              Sorry if you interpreted as a insult. I just don't like when people blindly follow others. I am not sure if that's some you are doing but its something I see a lot of. I'm not perfect either and I probably should work on my wording to make it less harsh.

              • temptest [any]
                ·
                1 year ago

                It's alright, and just to be clear, I do use and support F-Droid because I personally think it is better and suits my privacy goals. I didn't mean to sound as if I wasn't supporting it, just that it's a bit more nuanced when talking about the security side: like almost everything in security, it's more complex than one took being universally better than another.

  • VCTRN@programming.dev
    ·
    1 year ago

    I have never found anything useful in it. And god I have tried. I end up uninstalling it every time.

  • Juice [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I thought fdroid was out of maintenance and they recommend droidify

    • temptest [any]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I can't find anything about this. Got a source?

      • Juice [none/use name]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Okay so its not out of service, so that's my bad. But it's using an old android SDK, which could present security issues. Tbh I have them both installed it looks like. I prefer the ui of fdroid https://youtu.be/IzpVI4zaso0 https://wonderfall.dev/fdroid-issues/#3-low-target-api-level-sdk-for-client%E2%80%93apps

        • PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocksB
          ·
          1 year ago

          Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/IzpVI4zaso0

          Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

          I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

  • sovietknuckles [they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I use Nebulo for DNS over HTTPS, it works well. F-Droid repo for Nebulo: https://fdroid.frostnerd.com/

    The Nebulo version on the Play store is years behind the F-Droid version.