5 ms·

>There are so many good apps on the store made by good developers. It’s amazing how much better your experience is if you just avoid free apps when possible. Y

>There are so many good apps on the store made by good developers. It’s amazing how much better your experience is if you just avoid free apps when possible. Yes. It cannot be emphasized enough. Go pay for apps that are good.

kupiakos 8y ago
While generally true, I've also found free apps are usually decent and not-scummy if they're open source.
- magnetic 8y ago
  Could you give us some examples? I'd like to go check them out.
  - scurvy 8y ago
    Living Earth HD is great. Full disclosure, I formerly worked with the author.
  - modzu 8y ago
    https://github.com/conceptualspace/trueweather https://github.com/conceptualspace/trueweather
- modzu 8y ago
  generally a good rule of thumb, though ive also seen a few cases of a good open source app having a bunch of scummy forks that end up being more popular on the app store (eg shuttle vs phonograph). i wonder if google promotes apps with advertising more than their ad-free counterparts? the conflict of interest is so obvious but i digress..
  - mikekchar 8y ago
    Generally I trust the Fdroid repository much more than I trust Google's repository. Though if Fdroid became very popular with the masses I don't think that could continue to be the case, unfortunately. It's a difficult problem to weed out the bad apps...
    - modzu 8y ago
      thanks for the link to fdroid, have never used it but it looks promising!
- threatofrain 8y ago
  The best free apps I've found are just business moats to point you to another money maker. As callous as I'm phrasing it, those free apps tend to be leagues better than the population of paid apps.
ekianjo 8y ago
FDroid on Android has tons of FOSS apps that are quite good. Its a false dichotomy.
- rootlocus 8y ago
  It's not a false dichotomy if you remember these arguments aren't generic, they're for the apple store.
  - ekianjo 8y ago
    I thought we were talking about smartphones in general?
- jplayer01 8y ago
  How do I get FDroid on my iPhone?
  - ekianjo 8y ago
    You dont have to restrict yourself to using an Iphone. Embrace choice.
    - jtbayly 8y ago
      Think different.
    - jplayer01 8y ago
      So I have to settle with an environment that doesn't value privacy or security on a hardware or software level because of some vague ideal of free choice. Okay.
      - softawre 8y ago
        Your statement is a bit ironic, given the thread you're commenting in.
jtbayly 8y ago
Others have pointed out that there are good free apps. But more interestingly, there are bad paid apps. Take this paid Mac app for instance: https://gizmodo.com/top-apple-mac-app-secretly-sends-your-browser-history-t-1828881137 https://gizmodo.com/top-apple-mac-app-secretly-sends-your-br... What I’d really like to know is whether anybody has any evidence whatsoever that paid apps in these same categories don’t do exactly the same things in exactly the same percentages.
- dwighttk 8y ago
  It is a simple rule and there are definitely exceptions in both directions. (Good free apps, bad paid apps) The safest assumption to make is that if you give an app permission to access information from your device that the information will be shared with a nefarious actor. From there, if you want to get benefits from uploading your information, you can make adjustments like "Oh, I know this guy, he's been making apps for a long time and seems trustworthy." or "This is a larger company and isn't likely to be bought just to strip mine their customer data. Additionally they probably have safeguards in place to keep rogue employees from running off with it." None of those is fail-proof, but it's all about risk.
  - jtbayly 8y ago
    The more I think about it, the more I think it is appropriate to say if an app is free, you are the product and can assume they will extract every bit of value from you that they can. If an app is paid, there is at least the possibility you aren’t the product. But you still might be.

kupiakos 8y ago

While generally true, I've also found free apps are usually decent and not-scummy if they're open source.

magnetic 8y ago
Could you give us some examples? I'd like to go check them out.
- scurvy 8y ago
  Living Earth HD is great. Full disclosure, I formerly worked with the author.
- modzu 8y ago
  https://github.com/conceptualspace/trueweather https://github.com/conceptualspace/trueweather
modzu 8y ago
generally a good rule of thumb, though ive also seen a few cases of a good open source app having a bunch of scummy forks that end up being more popular on the app store (eg shuttle vs phonograph). i wonder if google promotes apps with advertising more than their ad-free counterparts? the conflict of interest is so obvious but i digress..
- mikekchar 8y ago
  Generally I trust the Fdroid repository much more than I trust Google's repository. Though if Fdroid became very popular with the masses I don't think that could continue to be the case, unfortunately. It's a difficult problem to weed out the bad apps...
  - modzu 8y ago
    thanks for the link to fdroid, have never used it but it looks promising!
threatofrain 8y ago
The best free apps I've found are just business moats to point you to another money maker. As callous as I'm phrasing it, those free apps tend to be leagues better than the population of paid apps.

ekianjo 8y ago

FDroid on Android has tons of FOSS apps that are quite good. Its a false dichotomy.

rootlocus 8y ago
It's not a false dichotomy if you remember these arguments aren't generic, they're for the apple store.
- ekianjo 8y ago
  I thought we were talking about smartphones in general?
jplayer01 8y ago
How do I get FDroid on my iPhone?
- ekianjo 8y ago
  You dont have to restrict yourself to using an Iphone. Embrace choice.
  - jtbayly 8y ago
    Think different.
  - jplayer01 8y ago
    So I have to settle with an environment that doesn't value privacy or security on a hardware or software level because of some vague ideal of free choice. Okay.
    - softawre 8y ago
      Your statement is a bit ironic, given the thread you're commenting in.

jtbayly 8y ago

Others have pointed out that there are good free apps. But more interestingly, there are bad paid apps. Take this paid Mac app for instance: https://gizmodo.com/top-apple-mac-app-secretly-sends-your-browser-history-t-1828881137 https://gizmodo.com/top-apple-mac-app-secretly-sends-your-br... What I’d really like to know is whether anybody has any evidence whatsoever that paid apps in these same categories don’t do exactly the same things in exactly the same percentages.

dwighttk 8y ago
It is a simple rule and there are definitely exceptions in both directions. (Good free apps, bad paid apps) The safest assumption to make is that if you give an app permission to access information from your device that the information will be shared with a nefarious actor. From there, if you want to get benefits from uploading your information, you can make adjustments like "Oh, I know this guy, he's been making apps for a long time and seems trustworthy." or "This is a larger company and isn't likely to be bought just to strip mine their customer data. Additionally they probably have safeguards in place to keep rogue employees from running off with it." None of those is fail-proof, but it's all about risk.
- jtbayly 8y ago
  The more I think about it, the more I think it is appropriate to say if an app is free, you are the product and can assume they will extract every bit of value from you that they can. If an app is paid, there is at least the possibility you aren’t the product. But you still might be.