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F-droid is one of the main things that keeps me in the Android world. I hope it continues but I suspect one day Google will make it more difficult for them to s

F-droid is one of the main things that keeps me in the Android world. I hope it continues but I suspect one day Google will make it more difficult for them to survive..... Android is becoming more and more Googlified and most apps come with google services. Even the simplest app tracks you in some way. I love F-droid because installing an app from there is like a proof that the app has some "ethics" and will respect you and your privacy. I think Android has been like a Trojan horse for many of us. It came as an "open and free" platform that attracted many of us, developers and users. But now is reeeeally difficult to escape from the google realm. We need more alternatives!

nolok 9y ago
> I hope it continues but I suspect one day Google will make it more difficult for them to survive Google has no reason nor interest to do that. There are several alternative stores out there, and moving to kill them would alienate several of their partners, as well as possibly open a legal case against them in some jurisdiction. On top of that, size wise, F-Droid doesn't even register for them. Honestly, this feeling if you have it is more of a delusion of persecution than anything tangible. > Android is becoming more and more Googlified and most apps come with google services. That I agree, but sadly it's still one of the better timelines: google play services is an app that they can update to provide better support and services for app, and this was the solution they chose to fix the early days of "no manufacturer update their phone's OS, so new app can't rely on new features". Is it perfect ? Nope. Is it great ? Nope. But when you have to compose in a world where manufacturer lock their phone so you can't update the OS unless they say so, it was kind of the natural path to move a many features as you could to a library like this. > I love F-droid because installing an app from there is like a proof that the app has some "ethics" and will respect you and your privacy. F-Droid is a "repository of free and open source" project, it has nothing to do with respecting user privacy or "having ethics". While there may be some correlation between the two, it's not a given by far. The F-droid project itself makes a guarantee of not tracking you, and they say they try to check apps they deliver to ensure they don't have abuse of privacy built in, but they go out of their way to make it clear it's not guaranteed and that app may or may not have such abuse in their code. > I think Android has been like a Trojan horse for many of us. It came as an "open and free" platform that attracted many of us, developers and users. But now is reeeeally difficult to escape from the google realm. When has Android been more open than today exactly ? And I'm not saying that in a "android is becoming more and more open" way, I'm saying it has always been like this. > We need more alternatives! Agreed
- bpicolo 9y ago
  I mean, in China the 'alternatives' are bigger yeah?
- victornomad 9y ago
  I agree with your comments in my comment. Just wanted to express my frustrations and sadness with the platform...
- Drdrdrq 9y ago
  > but sadly it's still one of the better timelines: google play services is an app that they can update to provide better support and services for app, and this was the solution they chose to fix the early days of "no manufacturer update their phone's OS, so new app can't rely on new features". I agree that their approach to the problem of updates was the right one. But they went too far - they also closed a vital part of OS from their partners and from users. They could have open-sourced it, but they didn't. I know it makes sense from business POV (Samsung was becoming dangerous to them), but it sucks for opensource alternatives.
throwaway2048 9y ago
https://microg.org/ https://microg.org/ helps significantly, its an implementation of playstore APIs including google maps (which you can swap out for OSM) and Google Cloud messaging. Apps that depend on this stuff will run even without Google Play services, and as a huge bonus you wont be feeding back constant spywar.... "telemetry" data to the Google mothership. Does wonders for your battery life and ram usage too! using microg doubled my available ram and doubled my battery life too.
- andrepd 9y ago
  Is it good for daily use?
  - Shywim 9y ago
    Look components state here: https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki/Implementation-Status https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki... I discovered microg only recently and was instantly very interested but I am a heavy user of Cast so that's a big no for me, though I'll happily jump on it once it's done (if it's possible).
    - voltagex_ 9y ago
      I don't think Cast will be possible as it requires a Google signing cert.
    - andrepd 9y ago
      For what's worth I can use Cast (Miracast) without installing Google services. If you would like to get rid of Google services maybe consider buying a Miracast dongle to replace Chromecast?
- ec109685 9y ago
  Why would it half your ram and double your battery life? It's a re-implantation of google API's.
  - 9y ago

nolok 9y ago

> I hope it continues but I suspect one day Google will make it more difficult for them to survive Google has no reason nor interest to do that. There are several alternative stores out there, and moving to kill them would alienate several of their partners, as well as possibly open a legal case against them in some jurisdiction. On top of that, size wise, F-Droid doesn't even register for them. Honestly, this feeling if you have it is more of a delusion of persecution than anything tangible. > Android is becoming more and more Googlified and most apps come with google services. That I agree, but sadly it's still one of the better timelines: google play services is an app that they can update to provide better support and services for app, and this was the solution they chose to fix the early days of "no manufacturer update their phone's OS, so new app can't rely on new features". Is it perfect ? Nope. Is it great ? Nope. But when you have to compose in a world where manufacturer lock their phone so you can't update the OS unless they say so, it was kind of the natural path to move a many features as you could to a library like this. > I love F-droid because installing an app from there is like a proof that the app has some "ethics" and will respect you and your privacy. F-Droid is a "repository of free and open source" project, it has nothing to do with respecting user privacy or "having ethics". While there may be some correlation between the two, it's not a given by far. The F-droid project itself makes a guarantee of not tracking you, and they say they try to check apps they deliver to ensure they don't have abuse of privacy built in, but they go out of their way to make it clear it's not guaranteed and that app may or may not have such abuse in their code. > I think Android has been like a Trojan horse for many of us. It came as an "open and free" platform that attracted many of us, developers and users. But now is reeeeally difficult to escape from the google realm. When has Android been more open than today exactly ? And I'm not saying that in a "android is becoming more and more open" way, I'm saying it has always been like this. > We need more alternatives! Agreed

bpicolo 9y ago
I mean, in China the 'alternatives' are bigger yeah?
victornomad 9y ago
I agree with your comments in my comment. Just wanted to express my frustrations and sadness with the platform...
Drdrdrq 9y ago
> but sadly it's still one of the better timelines: google play services is an app that they can update to provide better support and services for app, and this was the solution they chose to fix the early days of "no manufacturer update their phone's OS, so new app can't rely on new features". I agree that their approach to the problem of updates was the right one. But they went too far - they also closed a vital part of OS from their partners and from users. They could have open-sourced it, but they didn't. I know it makes sense from business POV (Samsung was becoming dangerous to them), but it sucks for opensource alternatives.

throwaway2048 9y ago

https://microg.org/ https://microg.org/ helps significantly, its an implementation of playstore APIs including google maps (which you can swap out for OSM) and Google Cloud messaging. Apps that depend on this stuff will run even without Google Play services, and as a huge bonus you wont be feeding back constant spywar.... "telemetry" data to the Google mothership. Does wonders for your battery life and ram usage too! using microg doubled my available ram and doubled my battery life too.

andrepd 9y ago
Is it good for daily use?
- Shywim 9y ago
  Look components state here: https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki/Implementation-Status https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki... I discovered microg only recently and was instantly very interested but I am a heavy user of Cast so that's a big no for me, though I'll happily jump on it once it's done (if it's possible).
  - voltagex_ 9y ago
    I don't think Cast will be possible as it requires a Google signing cert.
  - andrepd 9y ago
    For what's worth I can use Cast (Miracast) without installing Google services. If you would like to get rid of Google services maybe consider buying a Miracast dongle to replace Chromecast?
ec109685 9y ago
Why would it half your ram and double your battery life? It's a re-implantation of google API's.
- 9y ago