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No tracking? Providing an alternative? Not strengthening the Google-Apple duopoly on the mobile phone market? I was looking at it as a platform to publish an ap

No tracking? Providing an alternative? Not strengthening the Google-Apple duopoly on the mobile phone market? I was looking at it as a platform to publish an app on, which the open source requirement stopped dead in its tracks. I didn't have a viable open source business model for it at this time because it was a straight "customer pays money, gets software" deal with no tracking or other nonsense. As-is, F-Droid will not be an _alternative_, it can, at most, be an extension to the Play Store.

lern_too_spel 2y ago
That's what this article is about. Building a federated platform for distributing any type of mobile app, open source or not.
mid-kid 2y ago
I mean, f-droid allows adding custom repositories that don't follow the main one's rules. There's a decent amount of apps that do this for one reason or another. Other apps, like for example OSMAnd, have a special f-droid build with google services removed, leading to the lack of some features like android auto support. The client doesn't support any form of purchases and I don't think it ever will. I think you'd be best served using any of the other stores that support this or hosting it on your own website.
- jraph 2y ago
  I don't see why fdroid would never provide a payment feature. At least for ethical reasons. Fdroid focuses on free software (and is also concerned with privacy and other features). Free software does not need to be gratis. As long as the payment code is open source. At worst it would be a NonFreeNet anti feature. Could be mitigated by supporting several payment platform. Of course it could be hard to set up in practice.
  - mid-kid 2y ago
    You're right, but I don't think there's any incentive to do it. They pride themselves on having no tracking or otherwise user information (not even app popularity statistics), and adding any form of payment would require managing user accounts or coming up with impractical multi-device proof-of-purchase sharing solutions. It's also worth mentioning that since everything on the store would still remain free software, making it legal to share purchased copies, people seeking to use it as a business model (like the parent post) would generally be ill-served.
jraph 2y ago
I won't trust no tracking if it's non free. I know I will sound extreme (although I think it shouldn't be the case in among developers) and no offense, but this sounds like a happy outcome to me. I believe proprietary software to be unethical. I'm not interested in being proposed non free software. The software industry should figure it out and start respecting its users. However software funding is a real concern and I do believe there's room for some set of builtin solutions allowing free software funding beyond a donate link. There are many ways to fund free software. I'm not saying it's easy but there are many open source businesses now and as a developer I decided to join one of them. Support, consulting and paid (but still open source) paid features are some options. I don't think anybody would remove a license check in an app sent to f-droid if it's free software. Now, I genuinely thank you for having considered an alternative to Google for distributing your software. I know it's hard to build stuff and bootstrap it. I'm with you on this. In f-droid, you can still add third party repositories and I heard it's getting easier for users. Not sure it is easy enough. Now I'm totally aware only free software doesn't cut it for most people yet, and fdroid will not suffice. Most people will do with the play store, but some will use fdroid as a store of "trusty" apps and resort to the play store if really needed. I know people doing this.
- janosdebugs 2y ago
  In this case the software in question was a game. I have not seen any visble business models for truly open source games under the acceptable licenses for F-Droid. There are source-available games, but that would not be enough in this case. I think the main issue may be how much up-front investment games need that would never be recouped with an open source license, but I'd love to be shown an example to the contrary.
  - jraph 2y ago
    Game is its own thing indeed and I'll admit that first, I don't play much, and second, never even started thinking about business models for open source games. Maybe you could license the data for a fee and have the code as open source? Of course this is low effort and you know way better than me.

lern_too_spel 2y ago

That's what this article is about. Building a federated platform for distributing any type of mobile app, open source or not.

mid-kid 2y ago

I mean, f-droid allows adding custom repositories that don't follow the main one's rules. There's a decent amount of apps that do this for one reason or another. Other apps, like for example OSMAnd, have a special f-droid build with google services removed, leading to the lack of some features like android auto support. The client doesn't support any form of purchases and I don't think it ever will. I think you'd be best served using any of the other stores that support this or hosting it on your own website.

jraph 2y ago
I don't see why fdroid would never provide a payment feature. At least for ethical reasons. Fdroid focuses on free software (and is also concerned with privacy and other features). Free software does not need to be gratis. As long as the payment code is open source. At worst it would be a NonFreeNet anti feature. Could be mitigated by supporting several payment platform. Of course it could be hard to set up in practice.
- mid-kid 2y ago
  You're right, but I don't think there's any incentive to do it. They pride themselves on having no tracking or otherwise user information (not even app popularity statistics), and adding any form of payment would require managing user accounts or coming up with impractical multi-device proof-of-purchase sharing solutions. It's also worth mentioning that since everything on the store would still remain free software, making it legal to share purchased copies, people seeking to use it as a business model (like the parent post) would generally be ill-served.

jraph 2y ago

I won't trust no tracking if it's non free. I know I will sound extreme (although I think it shouldn't be the case in among developers) and no offense, but this sounds like a happy outcome to me. I believe proprietary software to be unethical. I'm not interested in being proposed non free software. The software industry should figure it out and start respecting its users. However software funding is a real concern and I do believe there's room for some set of builtin solutions allowing free software funding beyond a donate link. There are many ways to fund free software. I'm not saying it's easy but there are many open source businesses now and as a developer I decided to join one of them. Support, consulting and paid (but still open source) paid features are some options. I don't think anybody would remove a license check in an app sent to f-droid if it's free software. Now, I genuinely thank you for having considered an alternative to Google for distributing your software. I know it's hard to build stuff and bootstrap it. I'm with you on this. In f-droid, you can still add third party repositories and I heard it's getting easier for users. Not sure it is easy enough. Now I'm totally aware only free software doesn't cut it for most people yet, and fdroid will not suffice. Most people will do with the play store, but some will use fdroid as a store of "trusty" apps and resort to the play store if really needed. I know people doing this.

janosdebugs 2y ago
In this case the software in question was a game. I have not seen any visble business models for truly open source games under the acceptable licenses for F-Droid. There are source-available games, but that would not be enough in this case. I think the main issue may be how much up-front investment games need that would never be recouped with an open source license, but I'd love to be shown an example to the contrary.
- jraph 2y ago
  Game is its own thing indeed and I'll admit that first, I don't play much, and second, never even started thinking about business models for open source games. Maybe you could license the data for a fee and have the code as open source? Of course this is low effort and you know way better than me.