Basically title. I waited on installing F droid for a long time because my phone threw many scary warnings when I tried a long time ago. But now I have it, and I got some fossify apps, but since there is no “Editor’s Picks” on F- droid I dont really know where to go from here.
What apps do you recommend I install first to remove my dependence on closed ecosystems?
What is my vulnerability surface ie, which sort of apps should I watch out for?
Are there any bad faith companies in the open source sphere?
“Now we can play the game.”
Here is a very good collection of Foss apps for Android “40+ Best Open Source Android Apps” by itsfoss.com (almost all available in F-Droid)
That’s a good starter list. However it should be noted that all the Simple apps should be avoided now and instead people should use the forked versions from Fossify.
See the following post for more information: https://lemmy.world/post/11117891
That’s a good starter list. However it should be noted that all the Simple apps should be avoided now and instead people should use the forked versions from Fossify.
Yes, that’s right, all the recommendation lists are no longer up to date in this respect. However, until all Fossify apps have been released, the Simple apps from F-Droid can still be used. They have no ads, they are just no longer updated for two months/the time of sale…
I can recommend https://f-droid.org/packages/wangdaye.com.geometricweather/ for weather. Otherwise, I dont really use stuff from fdroid.
I’ve heard good stuff about the “fenneck” (?) browser, it’s like android firefox but good.
Breezy Weather is an updated fork of Geometric Weather.
Oh, nice! Didn’t know about that. I’ll use that from now on!
Fennec, it’s a type of fox in the real world, and it’s a perfectly fine fork of Firefox.
And Firefox for android is great, leaps and bounds better than the Chromes and Chromiums that many people use. Firefox for android allows you to install browser extensions!
I never have to leave home without my µBlock Origin again.
now install Droid-ify from Fdroid and you can uninstall Fdroid 😁
once you’re on Droid-ify enable repos from Izzy, divestOs, newpipe, cromite, &c
Droidify auto updates were hit and miss for me, compared to flawless F-Droid Basic unattended background updates.
Yeah, you can enable those repos in plain f-droid, too.
What is the draw of droidify other than (I think) using material design?
You mean Foxy Droid.
They meant neo store
isn’t Izzy’s full of closed source stuff?
Nope, They only add apps for which source code is available and don’t have any trackers
Beside concrete suggestions, I would suggest having a look at the applications you use. (Decide whether you actually use and need them first.) Search for the application on AlternativeTo or similar sites and look for a FLOSS alternative there. And also search the internet for general FLOSS replacements for the use-cases of the applications you use. No need to rush anything. Even replacing one application a week is good progress.
These are my main core apps. Not fully divested from closed ecosystems (YouTube & Google Maps are in there with alternative private frontends). But close enough for me.
- Mull - Private Firefox
- OrganicMaps & GMaps WV - Maps
- Eternity - Lemmy
- Meglodon - Mastadon
- ProtonVPN - VPN
- AntennaPod - Podcasts
- Bitwarden - Passwords
- Joplin - Notes
- NewPipe Sponsorblock - YouTube w/o ads or in-video promotions
- Need to add the Izzy repo to get this one
- VLC - Music & video
- Yet Another Call Blocker - Spam calls
- Geometric Weather - Weather
Development for NewPipe Sponsorblock has ended. They recommend using Tubular instead.
Thank you! I had no idea development had stopped but I see that now in their GitHub repository.
Remove gapps
Begin to de-google yourself. Research on FOSS alternatives to Google apps and services. Depending on your reliance, this may be a slow process. It’s OK. Build an understanding that there will be lots of sacrificing, especially convenience around the brand ecosystem that Google and Apple are known for.
It’s a bit unnerving, to understand how massive an influence that one company has on our lives.
Wait until you find out about Obtainium.
I’m loving obtainium. I just found it about 2 weeks ago and, I’ve been slowly switching everything I had installed with f droid over to obtainium. Only problem so far was one didn’t have apk releases. Only a .zip. There is already a issue on github about it and I expect obtainium will be able to handle that in the near future. It has be getting updated a lot lately. Plus version 1.0.0 just released.
Yeah, I did the same when I found it. For some apps I still left the fdroid version, but they update with obtainium.
Im thinking its another app storefront, similar to f droid?
Obtainium lets you install FOSS programs directly from the developers source. You can get updates from the github/gitlab of app developers before they get uploaded to F-droid.
How do I use it? I downloaded it but I don’t see the apps on it
You have to add them manually, either by url or with the built in search. For example, you can add newpipe by searching sources and checking github as a source to search. It will then show you repos that match newpipe, which usually is the regular newpipe repo and then a bunch of forks of it.
Obtainium isn’t for finding FOSS apps, it’s for installing them. To find them, you can check out existing repos such as f-droid or izzy, or you can ask around. This post has a bunch of recommendations in the replies
Alright boys
Do we still do that reddit thing here where we assume everyone is male?
for the downVoters
why defend defaultism or sexism? It may sound harmless to you, you may be used to it, but “alright boys” is exclusive and not, like some need to claim, a default greeting.
older women don’t care, they’re used to men being dickheads, but not being recognized hurts girls
alright girls, (that by default means you boys🤯) you can downVote this comment to hell now
Since when “boys” means only males 🫤
Since English became a language and started using the word boys
if boy already meant what it still does in proto-Germanic, the response would be: since at least 2500 years ago
but you’re write, watt r words butt gubblede gook. your all ways rite
Your comment is a Twitter thing
No assumption of gender, I was just going for the “Fuck it, we ball” rhetoric. I’m sorry if I made you feel excluded.
I think girls don’t really care or they do? Because I use ‘bro’ talking or texting to a girl.
What’s something you want to replace?
ViMusic - ad free music streaming
TrackerControl - view and block app trackers
LibreTube - ad free youtube client
Termux - TerminalThere are also plenty of replacements for builtin apps like camera, gallery, maps, etc, although I personally haven’t made that jump yet as there are some missing quality of life features.
Use RiMusic - It’s a fork of ViMusic and Updated
Vinyl Music Player has been my favorite of the large handful that I’ve tried
Your question about the security of apps is a good one and should be an ongoing one. Who do we, who don’t code, put our trust into? Generally I just see if an app is frequently mentioned by others; but that’s a pretty shaky approach to downloading software…
It really comes down to what is your use case. Also, a bit of mindset since you have to do a bit more research on some apps yourself, nothing too bad, like checking on the App’s Github if they have one to see issues or bugs. Some of which may apply to you… or not. F-Droid has a link for most apps on their app.
Personally, I removed almost all apps on my phone that have ads and/or improved privacy in one way or another.
I used to use Nova but I found KISS launcher or it’s fork TinyBit Launcher much better. Why? Because I do a lot of searches and liked that it is search focused and you can install all types of different search once you know the proper syntax. From Wikipedia, to Youtube, to Searxng, to Dictionaries or DuckDuckGo, you can add almost all search engines. The app is really, really light on resources and it does what I want it to do.
I dropped all Google products, rooted my phone and removed them off my phone along with Google Play Services. Avoid all apps with any trackers. Albeit I still have a couple that I still need. But it is a great reduction.
Use K9 for mail, OpenVPN in lieu of my VPN provider’s app, BraveNewPipe or NewPipe w/Sponsor block for Youtube and other services. Use Mull instead of Firefox, due to being more privacy focused. Eternity for Lemmy, as a, well, Lemmy client.
KDEconnect to send/ping/transfer/control PC’s and phones over local Wifi. It’s free. Now, I know that many people may not use it, but I set up a Nextcloud Instance on my server and thus have Notes, Maps, RSS reader, File and Bookmarks Sync all through that by using their free apps. All available for free from F-Droid. But you do need a server.
Also, Termux as terminal. You can do lots with it due to all the apps and services you can run. I used to run a Searx instance from my phone and I used that to search along with my VPN.
For weather I use either QuickWeather or Geometric Weather, with icons you can get for free from the Playstore.
Syncthing FairMail FreeOTP+ Markor Voyager APK Explorer Kiss launcher Nekogram X Bitwarden
