What is a FOSS app even doing on the Play Store ?!? Didn't these devs get the memo about the GAFAM boycott ??
Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
141–150 of 579 posts
Re: Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
We can act more effectively in the domains in which we are most authoritative, knowledgeable and able to effect change.
Yes, we, as tech workers. Most people aren't "us". It's perfectly understandable for places like the android/apple app stores to be heavily moderated. Same reasoning for forcing people to have their cars serviced by mechanics and not do their own maintenance in their backyards. Otherwise we'd have people driving cars without pipes and DIY break pads. I'd much rather have that enforced by megacorps/govt than by an inf…
The problem is the authoritarianism. You are advocating for totalitarian control as a solution to the possibility that some individuals might misbehave. If there is one thing we should have learned from history by now, it's that that's about the worst solution to a problem ever.
Re: Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
#143A general comment: the need of the hour is to educate the billions of 'ordinary' computer users about the basics of software, privacy, security and trust. We must not fall into the narrative being parroted around off-late that considers end-users as pretty much dumb content consumers who should not be expected to ever know even the minimum about the underlying tech and therefore every decision needs to be made for th…
What you're asking for is technology literacy, similar to science literacy. Adults generally don't care to learn this stuff. But you can teach the next generation.
Yes, and the tech industry is already several decades old and multiple generations have come and gone, but today's tech consumers seem to be even less confident of poking behind the surface than those of the yesteryears.
And do note that there was a point in history when even basic literacy belonged to a small few who argued in exactly the same manner than tech people do today, i.e., that most people will never be able to understand basic science and maths, and we cannot hope for any better than to be benevolent dictators. Later history proved the hollowness of those claims. Today the majority in most of the developed and some of the developing countries are basically literate and what their grandparents couldn't imagine doing, they do effortlessly today. I don't see a single reason why computer sector should be any different. I'm not talking about a deep understanding of computers, just basic literacy that would obviate the excuse for tight, walled gardens and locked down devices.
Re: Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
#144The problem of donation links from Google's perspective is that they are not getting their 30% cut. You might think that this is unfair, but the app is using their distribution platform. It's possible to make open source applications and still ask for payment on Google Play, either as the asking price, subscription or by adding in-app payments for donations. This is the right way to do it, and will probably also have…
> This is the right way to do it
Might be convenient and great for Googles revenue, but it's the wrong way to do it if your priorities are to reduce the projects platform-dependence and to support the project with your full donation.
Usually, once I decide to contribute money to a project I want them to be as free as possible and I want them to get as much of that money as possible. Independent from the specific app store I pulled it from.
I think it's wrong that the Google Play Store treats donations like purchases.
Re: Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
#145The very same thing happened to manyverse (android ssb client) the other day. Got de-listed, resubmitted without donation page, now it's back up. How google tries to claim any sort of support for open source is beyond me. What open source app doesn't need a donation link? Those approved and funded by google don't, okay. But other than that?
Open source app can be compiled and installed without Google play store. If you are hosting on their platform, you adhere to their rules, you are not paying monthly for your free app download bandwith and storage do you ?
> you are not paying monthly for your free app download bandwith and storage do you ?
Do I have that option?
Re: Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
We can act more effectively in the domains in which we are most authoritative, knowledgeable and able to effect change.
Yes, we, as tech workers. Most people aren't "us". It's perfectly understandable for places like the android/apple app stores to be heavily moderated. Same reasoning for forcing people to have their cars serviced by mechanics and not do their own maintenance in their backyards. Otherwise we'd have people driving cars without pipes and DIY break pads. I'd much rather have that enforced by megacorps/govt than by an inf…
> Our job is to provide them safe tools, not teach them about tech.
But, you can't really provide them safe tools without fixing some of the behavioral components, can you.
"Don't try to lick the sharp parts, especially when running the machine" is an implicit and important (albeit obscure) part of the safety to operating, let's say, a band saw. Unfortunately, the intellectual bar seems to be noticeably higher for "When a very urgent and heavily accented Microsoft Support representative calls you out of the blue, don't type into your shiny techno-thingy what they tell you to".
I'm generally all for sane defaults and constructing to make spontaneous use possible too, but a lot of the time there is ultimately no other protection against dangerously wrong use of tools than not using the tools dangerously wrongly. Too bad that's a tall order for very complicated machines that can do vastly different things depending on configuration.
Re: Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
In what sense will it be ok? Isn't a lot of the stuff in appstores spyware nowadays?
While there is generally always some small percentage of apps that don't do what they promise and slip through the review I think I can be reasonably sure that if I download something from the macOS / iOS app store it'll do what they say. I trust it enough to believe it won't start crypto mining in the background or connect to random servers and sending the content of my computer somewhere. For the average user it's…
> I trust it enough to believe it won't start crypto mining in the background or connect to random servers and sending the content of my computer somewhere.
The current migration towards more sandboxing also helps. For instance, Android has restrictions on how much an application can do in the background without showing up as a persistent notification, and xdg-app's sandboxing can restrict how much of the content of your computer an application can access without using a file open dialog.
Re: Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
#148Re: Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't understand what Google is thinking about when they banned donations. They're thinking that they're a monopoly and can do whatever the hell they want without needing to justify themselves?
hazarding a guess, i’m assuming people tried using off-platform payments described as donations to sidestep play store payments
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Re: Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
That way google gets a cut of the donation.
Oops, it's not a good idea! I now see the motivation behind it!
I am sort of annoyed the other replier didn't see the sarcasm here, so I'm going to point it out, and note that it's funny -- seeing the motivation behind a behavior doesn't automatically invalidate it.