• @[email protected]
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    1111 year ago

    Something worth noting is that F-Droid is both an app to download other apps but they also maintains a repository of apps. You can use alternative store apps (like Droid-ify) with the F-Droid repository OR you could use the F-Droid app with a different repository (like IzzyOnDroid). You can mix and match to meet your needs.

    I use the Droid-ify app with the F-Droid, IzzyOnDroid, microG, NewPipe, and Collabora repositories.

    Once you start down this rabbit hole, give Obtanium a look.

    • Gunpachi
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      191 year ago

      Neostore is also a good alternative to the normal f-droid client

      • @itadakimasu
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        01 year ago

        I wanted to like this one.

        Neostore got stuck trying to sync repos or something and drained my battery from 80% to 20% within like an hour.

        Uninstalled it immediately. No app should be able to malfunction in such a way to cause such battery drain.

    • 6daemonbag
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      71 year ago

      Can you elaborate on what these different repos are and do? And, referring to a child comment, what is divest?

      • @[email protected]
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        91 year ago

        On Android, we’re used the “Play Store” being both the app that facilitates downloads as well as the collection of apps available. With F-Droid, you can add additional collections of apps to make available for download.

        You might add an additional repository to gain access to apps not in the main F-Droid repository. You might add a developer’s repository to gain access to updates to their apps before those updates hit the main F-Droid repository.

        Divest is the developer repository for app maintained by Divest OS, a fork of Lineage OS.

        • 6daemonbag
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          21 year ago

          I have and use F-Droid but hadn’t caught on to repos and their function. Just seen it mentioned. Thanks for elaborating!

      • @[email protected]
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        61 year ago

        Some software developers prefer to host their own repos and have more control over the release process and/or don’t want to fill all the criteria for being included on f-droid, so they create their own repos. Some of these apps can still be found on vanilla fdroid, but often aren’t updated so frequently.

        Izzyondroid, on the other hand, is a different project, aimed at hosting different apps that are usually from smaller devs and can’t be included on fdroid yet, for different reasons.

        The greatest thing about fdroid is that it allows anyone to create their own repos and you aren’t forced to depend on anyone.

    • Possibly linuxOP
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      21 year ago

      I would avoid adding other repositories because you are risking malware and anti features.

      F-droid is slow to get updates but it also verifies each app

      • @[email protected]
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        51 year ago

        There is safety there, but you’re just as safe using the the developer’s own repository for their apps, like NewPipe, Collabora, or the Guardian Project.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 year ago

      Oh THAT’S what repos are for? I assumed they were all independently structured and incompatible with each other for different reasons lmao.

    • @Squizzy
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      21 year ago

      I just have the basic f droid app, the layout is awful and confusing. Is there one you suggest?

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      Many years ago I tried to go completely de-googled, and that involved using only F-droid. One of the many problems I faced was the tedious update process. I needed to tap each and every app individually every time there were updates. I wonder if droid-ify could have fixed that. Unfortunately I didn’t come across that app at the time, so I didn’t try it out.

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        Oh for sure! Droid-ify offers a few different installation methods. The Legacy and Session install options are what you are used to. With those methods, you are prompted to download and install with each update.

        With the Root install method, updates can be downloaded and installed in the background using root privileges. Lastly, and I think most intriguing, is using Shizuku. Shizuku is a utility that will give you close to root access using ADB. See link for details. So, with the Shizuku install methods, Droid-ify can keep all your F-Droid apps up to date with little intervention from the user.

        Footnote: Because Shizuku leverages ADB, it needs to be started manually after each reboot.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          That’s awesome! Looks like there’s been progress while I was not looking.

          What do you think, is it now a viable option do daily drive a completely de-googled phone?

  • qyron
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    451 year ago

    Been using Fdroid to the point where my first boot into a new phone is:

    Open chrome > download fdroid > open settings > uninstall/disable every single application I can > open fdroid > install all the relevant apps I require for making my phone useful

    I’m just waiting for a small life upgrade in order to be able to support some app developers; it will be money better spent than using the standard google apps.

          • L3ft_F13ld!
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            21 year ago

            It’s a lot better than stock, even though there are still some Google things left over. If you don’t install your own GApps, then the Google stuff in Lineage is minimal.

      • @[email protected]
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        It’s insane that I can’t make any steps towards ungoogling myself w/o paying 2.5 times the price of a phone. I can’t buy an allready degoogled pixel here, I can’t buy fairphone here, I can only use a package forwarding service from the US, declare it to customs - and watch them add a monstrous fee to it.

        I wish I could have the courage to buy a pixel and try to replace the OS myself - but I fear I will just brick it…

        • @[email protected]
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          81 year ago

          Installing GrapheneOS is actually ludicrously easy if you’re expecting some kind of root exploit nonsense like you used to have to do with custom ROMs! Full instructions here, happy to answer any questions if you need!

        • Keith
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          61 year ago

          You 99% won’t brick it, I guarantee you. Graphene’s install is really easy. You press a few buttons on a website and never touch a terminal, aside from if you’re on GNOME. As for price, I got a used Pixel 4a 5g for 100 and newer ones won’t be as expensive as the things you might’ve gone for. Try a used Pixel 6a? (Graphene doesn’t extend software support)

        • L'unico Dee
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          41 year ago

          I just did it two days ago, had the same fears, everything went smooth like butter

        • @[email protected]
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          Bricking is a possibility but for phones that can be unlocked, it should be a matter of following the instructions on Lineageos - unlock the bootloader, flash the recovery partition, flash lineageos + Google apps.

          The biggest pain in the ass for me was trying to get the adb & fastboot tools to talk to the device in the first place. For example OnePlus requires drivers for its devices but Windows doesn’t install them automatically so you have to go find them. Except the adb driver works but the fastboot one didn’t. Then after a bunch of searching it turns out OnePlus forgot to sign the fastboot driver so Windows refused to install it and I had to boot Windows in a convoluted way to disable signature verification to get the driver installed.

          After all that, the rest was relatively straightforward but it still took several hours of effort. IMO Lineageos is a pretty ugly dist but if you install Google Apps it’s not missing anything and it extends the phone’s life beyond what the manufacturer could be bothered to support.

        • @MigratingtoLemmy
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          11 year ago

          The first issue is that you’re in the US.

          As for installing Graphene, it’s very unlikely that you will brick your mobile, since with the new WebUSB installer, you don’t have to do anything. Just set it to install and have your favourite beverage whilst the Web installer deals with it

      • qyron
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        61 year ago

        I’ve used so called entry level phones my entire life; I can’t motivate myself to spend the amount a Fair Phone costs, although the concept is appealing and regardless the geek in me going nuts with the idea of tinkering with my phone as I do with my computer. I also prefer rugged phones, which is something most brands don’t cater to.

        My current phone is an Oukitel and has already passed the three year mark, still more than enough for my needs, in great part thanks to my option to run FOSS whenever possible.

        • Possibly linuxOP
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          11 year ago

          I just run Lineage os. Sure its not as secure but it supports many phones and is clean and light.

          Combine it with F-droid and your golden

          • qyron
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            11 year ago

            I doubt I can get that to run on my phone. Being a minor brand, it is as if it doesn’t exist.

            • Possibly linuxOP
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              1 year ago

              What device is it? There probably is an unofficial build.

              Also 3 years is not that old. My phone is from 2019 and runs Android 13 just fine (Motorola-ocean)

              • qyron
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                11 year ago

                Oukitel WP8 Pro

                It has an MT6762D CPU, with 4GB RAM.

                And now I’m doubting for how long I’ve had it, has the last update for the Android 10 it runs is from 2020 and I can remember updating it, for sure.

                • Possibly linuxOP
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                  11 year ago

                  Ok, your right there is very little support for that device. Sorry I couldn’t be more help

        • LinkOpensChest.wav
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          51 year ago

          Nice. I just decided to try it, and this seems really nice so far. The built-in repositories feature is really nice, especially for people who are just getting acquainted with F-Droid

      • @[email protected]
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        Neo store is my favourite. Yes there is another upside. F-droid targets old apk , android 5 , which is a issue , albeit small.

      • @[email protected]
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        -21 year ago

        Why would you ever want to do that? Sometimes the older version is better for about a third of the apps on my device.

        • @[email protected]
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          101 year ago

          Running outdated versions of software, whether on your phone or the desktop, will generally expose you to more vulnerabilities and is not best practice from a security perspective.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 year ago

          Huh, most of the time. I mean, people like you don’t have to use it at all, but I prefer to just press “Update all” once if I have >2 updates in a row.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 year ago

          People that don’t have a solid grasp on computing tend to think any and all updates are inherently good.

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          Droidify has an ignore all new versions button. And you can of course downgrade whenever you want.

        • @[email protected]
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          -11 year ago

          People that don’t have a solid grasp on computing tend to think any and all updates are inherently good.

  • @[email protected]
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    231 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)
  • Illecors
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    211 year ago

    Fdroid basic allows automatic updates!

    The guadian project repos are also preset, albeit not enabled by default.

    • regalia
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      11 year ago

      So does Neostore and Droid-ify. Those are worth looking into.

  • @shortly2139
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    181 year ago

    Even better obtanium installs direct from the Devs host. You could use fdroid to find the homepage/where they host and add it to obtanium

    • @[email protected]
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      91 year ago

      Installing through F-Droid is way easier tho and the IzzyOnDroid repo actually uses the binaries from the developer

      • L3ft_F13ld!
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        41 year ago

        Though, last I checked, IzzyOnDroid does warn that they usually only host things not found on F-droid. Once something they host gets included in F-droid it’s often removed from IzzyOnDroid without warning.

          • newIdentity
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            11 year ago

            I don’t know if you didn’t understand their comment or if Droidify has a feature I didn’t knew about.

            • @[email protected]
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              1 year ago

              Droid-ify offers apps from different repositories so you can have Izzyondroid and F-droid at the same time. It also scans for updates and does auto-updates if possible.

              • newIdentity
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                21 year ago

                Yeah I know about that but what has that to do with IzziOnDroid apps which pulls the apps from GitHub being removed after they’ve been added to the official Fdroid repo

                • @[email protected]
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                  11 year ago

                  Apparently it seems that I don’t get it indeed.

                  I said Droid-ify is a 'best of both worlds because it offers the easy of use of F-droid but also pulls from IzzyOnDroid/GitHub.

    • Possibly linuxOP
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      81 year ago

      I prefer F-droid as it adds a layer of checks to hopefully keep the devs from doing something malious

        • Possibly linuxOP
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          51 year ago

          Its not security I’m looking for. If I wanted security I would be running stock with all of the apps from large corporations.

          What’s good about F-droid is the freedom you get when you use it. All of its apps are libre. You have the ability to tweak them anyway you want and the source code it yours to study, learn, modify and distribute.

      • @Yn37
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        101 year ago

        oh and shattered pixel dungeon also…

      • Cethin
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        31 year ago

        The UX for Mindustry sucks compared to something like Factorio, because it’s really tough to do those controls on touch screen, but it’s good enough. I’ve enjoyed it for the little I tried.

    • @[email protected]
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      101 year ago

      Most of the apps of tibor kaputa. I really like the simple gallery. The simple dialer and simple contacts are also really good. Just clean default apps that do what they should.(adfree)

    • @[email protected]
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      Newpipe in particular is super important. It’s a better YouTube app with more features and no ads.

      Sorry for not supporting Google, I know they need more money… /s

      • @[email protected]
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        81 year ago

        I prefer LibreTube because it doesn’t look outdated and it uses Piped, so you never actually connect to the YouTube servers and you can synchronize your subscriptions and playlists

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          It’s a fantastic app. Remember to set your default YouTube links to open with it also, you can do that with android in app settings.

    • @[email protected]
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      61 year ago

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

    • @gaael
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      Pretty much all the basics are covered, here are some examples:

      • Newpipe for videos and music
      • FairEmail for email
      • Organic Maps for maps and routes
      • Aves Libre for gallery
      • lots of privacy-oriented instant messaging apps (I use DeltaChat)
      • Jerboa for lemmy
      • plethora of calendars, todo apps, calculators, keyboards…
      • some games

      And then of course all you power-ish user stuff (alternate launchers, clients for self-hosted clouds and stuff, terminal emulators…)

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        Worth noting while checking out Aves libre it seems the developer has renamed it to just Aves and continued updating.

        New to f-droid so if I have this wrong let me know

      • Cethin
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        51 year ago

        Thanks to US infrastructure I don’t need yet another map just for public transport! Thanks US government for looking out for us little people! (I really don’t think this is needed, but /s just in case.)

  • @[email protected]
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    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
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      81 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    141 year ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    141 year ago

    I’ve always had a niggling 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?

    • qyron
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      161 year ago

      Not really.

      Fdroid is a secure repositorie and the applications are reviewed before being made available for end users.

      The repository is also highly focused on privacy and security and will warn if applications have security flaws or depend on non free services.

      As an example, I use NewPipe instead of the standard YT app and it has a warning it depends on non-free services.

      One other example I can give is Librera. It’s a very feature rich ebook/pdf/etc reader. At some point, a security flaw was discovered and the app was instantly flagged has having such problems and users were advised to not install it.

      • @[email protected]
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        11 year ago

        Fdroid is a secure repositorie and the applications are reviewed before being made available for end users.

        Reviewed by who though? Malicious apps even get through apple and Google’s screening. I can’t see how fdroid can match the capabilities of those guys.

    • @[email protected]
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      71 year ago

      The benefit of open source apps is anyone can view the code to see if there is malware or other installed.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 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.

    • Possibly linuxOP
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      11 year ago

      Yes but F-droid is an exception. Be careful of adding third party repos though

    • @[email protected]
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      -11 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    121 year ago

    I can’t use F-Droid without the Play Store but I tend to check there first to see if there is something available there before installing something from the Play Store.

    • chrizbie
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      71 year ago

      You should check out aurora store on f-droid if you haven’t already, its basically an alternative front end for the play store, which means you can remove your google account from your phone (if you want to)