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Tue 29 Jun 2021 12:22PM

A blog post on F-Droid

RD Ravi Dwivedi Public Seen by 89

I propose to write a blog post on raising awareness about F-Droid and why people should choose F-Droid, it's many features and how can people avoid Google Play Store even for downloading nonfree apps(I am talking about Aurora store).

Pad here https://pad.disroot.org/p/fdroid

Update on 19-Jan-2022: The blog post is published here https://fsci.in/blog/fdroid-for-freedom-in-android/

PV

Pirate Vik Mon 5 Jul 2021 6:20PM

Should you recommend arora though? I am not sure how they comply with google's terms

PP

Pirate Praveen Sat 17 Jul 2021 1:21PM

https://fosstodon.org/@snikket_im/106589990254587199 about reproducible builds on fdroid, answers Signal developer's question about signed debs.

PP

Pirate Praveen Sat 17 Jul 2021 1:52PM

I think it'd be a good idea to mention MicroG project too, which provides Free Software implementation of Google Play Services (still connects to Google Services though, but one step better as we use Free Software on our devices). It also comes with FDroid preinstalled as a system app (making installing apps easier than regular install - less prompts from user to install apps).

RD

Ravi Dwivedi Thu 22 Jul 2021 9:27AM

@Pirate Praveen Thanks for your comments. Should we add Aurora Store as @Pirate Vik asked?

RD

Ravi Dwivedi Thu 22 Jul 2021 9:28AM

https://www.f-droid.org/en/2019/05/05/trust-privacy-and-free-software.html can be added as well. I think this one also answer Signal developer's concerns.

RD

Ravi Dwivedi Wed 4 Aug 2021 7:21PM

Sometimes people take anti-features too seriously. I think we can write that they should evaluate these anti-features and not follow them blindly. Example: NewPipe has an anti-feature (the only one anti-feature) that it promotes nonfree network services, which is YouTube. Anyone who would like to watch YouTube using a free software replacement front-end and not directly from YouTube is up for this anti-feature anyway. Similar for Quicksy. F-Droid says Quicksy tracks the users while it only makes phone number registration mandatory for the service and is intended for only those users who have no problems sharing their number with such a service.

A

Akshay Thu 5 Aug 2021 7:50AM

In general, it is a good idea for people to evaluate everything critically. Inclusion in f-droid itself is only a signal. Other signals within f-droid are also signals. Signals outside f-droid are also signals. We should always encourage people to think for themselves.

PP

Pirate Praveen Thu 5 Aug 2021 2:40PM

@Akshay it does not really scale well if everything has to be handled at a personal level. For somethings, we need to be able delegate decisions to people we trust or we have option to review and correct.

PP

Pirate Praveen Thu 5 Aug 2021 2:42PM

As the famous quote says, 'trust but verify'.

A

Akshay Sun 8 Aug 2021 12:37PM

Even when we delegate, there is an element of shared decision making to be applied.

For example, taking (possibly inappropriate) analogy from surgery - the patient might not be able to know what's a better method in a surgery, but the patient should know if there are two options what the pros and cons are and what considerations are made in a decision. Because more often than not we will be surprised about what the patient actually wants.

Similarly, here. What people want or do not changes from person to person.

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