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Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

f-droid.org

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Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#141

Post by onli »

janosdebugs wrote: post #79
jraph wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

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…

Shattered Pixels is one example of a game with a commercial side that is published on f-droid.

Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#142

Post by snvzz »

repelsteeltje wrote: post #82
janosdebugs wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think policies[1] are blocking F-Droid more than anything from being a viable alternative. A bank will likely never release their app as open source, nor will any of the big authentication vendors. This means that you cannot completely replace the Google Play Store with F-Droid if you have to use any of these, you can only use it as an additional store, at which point many won't be bothered. [1]: https://f-droid.or…

> A bank will likely never release their app as open source, nor will any of the big authentication vendors. I suppose you're right and I think it's worrying that precisely these kinds of organizations still seem to rely on security through obscurity (to some extent, not solely).

I'll go further and say that a bank should be required by law to implement and enable access to open banking APIs.

As well as not require, under any circumstances, an account holder to install a proprietary application in order to use the bank.

Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#143

Post by snvzz »

rjzzleep wrote: post #57
sanroot99 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use droidify a alternative fork of fdroid

Droidify is so vastly superior it’s not even close. Fdroid still has the privileged extension whereas droidify and Neodroid can use Shizuku and other options. I do think that droidify is an unfortunate naming choice though.

>Fdroid still has the privileged extension whereas droidify and Neodroid can use Shizuku and other options.

What is all of this, care to elaborate?

A lot of actually uncommon knowledge is being assumed here.

Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#144

Post by whatjadat2 »

janosdebugs wrote: post #88
t0bia_s wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not using Google play or any other services on android over 6 years now. You don't need banking apps for making transactions.

I live in an EU country and I, in fact, cannot use online banking without a Google-enabled Android or an iPhone. There is exactly one bank that offers a desktop authenticator, but we had a really bad experience with them when we tried them for a year.

I live in a EU country as well, Netherlands to be exact. Never had an issue with any bank. What are you talking about?

Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#145

Post by mananaysiempre »

SushiHippie wrote: post #106
nh2 wrote: post #27

F-Droid still has some big tasks in order to be useable for the general public, when comparing it with e.g. Google Play Store. For example, if you search it for "browser", Firefox will not show up because A) It's called Fennec B) The F-Droid search seems to be exact infix search, and Fennec's title is "Fennec F-Droid -- Browse the web", in which "Browser" does not appear, only "browse". So it doesn't find it. In gene…

It's called Fennec because it is not from Mozilla and includes patches to removs propietary bits (which are not allowed on F-Droid). https://gitlab.com/relan/fennecbuild And fennec was the 'internal' name for firefox on android from mozilla.

> because it is not from Mozilla and includes patches to remove propietary bits

More specifically, because Mozilla won’t allow you to do that and still call it Firefox. (Except if you’re Debian, apparently Debian now gets an unwritten free pass after they demonstrated their willingness to protest that with Iceweasel. And either F-Droid is not big enough for that, Mozilla is not the same as it was back then, or both.)

Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#146

Post by yashasolutions »

hedora wrote: post #131
Dalewyn wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I’ve never been able to discover decent apps on the Google Play Store. I’m continually surprised how bad its search functionality is. Usually, I start with f-droid (to avoid spy/adware), then go straight to ddg or kagi.

Just to add, F-Droid is not a guarantee against adware. There are definitely adware apps (and by extension, maybe even spyware) on F-Droid.

Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#147

Post by immibis »

Aurornis wrote: post #40
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #13

At this point the access points and the global data and surveillance system is too complicated and interconnected to dis-intermediate the access point and the network itself That is to say you cannot even connect to IP addresses unless you’re already part of the global whitelist for APs Try yourself. Get a VPN and then connect from certain regions and to won’t get very far and you’ll be slooooow You’ll say, oh, that’…

> That is to say you cannot even connect to IP addresses unless you’re already part of the global whitelist for APs > Try yourself. Get a VPN and then connect from certain regions and to won’t get very far and you’ll be slooooow Connecting to a far away VPN doesn’t prove anything about a “global whitelist” VPN addresses are commonly rate limited and block listed because they’re sources of abusive traffic and therefor…

That's what they said, yes. Only certain access points are whitelisted to access things. If you aren't using one then you're blacklisted. VPNs aren't one. You claim there isn't a global whitelist and then proceed to explain a global whitelist.

Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#148

Post by rakoo »

I think the message is not clear. Mobifree is not a software stack, or a consortium, or that kind of thing. TFA and the official site make a poor job at explaining what it is.

Mobifree is a grant from the EU to any open source maker. This means existing applications can do the changes everyone complains about all the time while its developers see some of their pressure relieved. New software, infrastructure can pop up for the benefit of everyone, hardware projects can iterat a few more times to make something right. Anyone can actually apply for some it through https://nlnet.nl/mobifree : NLNet is an NGO that has repeatedly helped and supported the floss ecosystem, but this time with a focus on mobile. You can see their sub-grant here: https://nlnet.nl/mobifree/

F-droid is the expected partner for this given they only distribute floss software by default.

The grant page has maybe more information: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101135795

Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#149

Post by RachelF »

wkat4242 wrote: post #73

Nice! I see MicroG is part of this initiative too: https://mobifree.org/ I hope it becomes a bit more mainstream now. Some custom roms like lineage are very hostile to it because they're afraid Google will do more against them if they include it. You can't even mention it in their community or you will get kicked. It's nothing nasty though, it's just a bare minimum implementation of google play services remade in ope…

The main problem now with many custom ROMs is VoLTE support. Many countries are shutting down 3G networks, and many VoLTE solutions (for 4G and 5G voice) are not available in the open source ROMs.

Re: Mobifree – An open-source mobile ecosystem

#150

Post by RachelF »

CJefferson wrote: post #137
beretguy wrote: post #136

1. Is it only available for EU citizens? 2. They/somebody needs to make a good quality android/iOS alternative that is NOT based on android and is stupid simple to install on any android and/or develop good quality affordable ( I tried kaios devices, I’ve got pine phone, i cannot afford anymore things like fair phone and the likes. If banks/parking meters/washing machines expect us to use smartphones somebody needs t…

Why not based on android, out of interest? Basing on android gives you lots of driver support which would be very hard to recreate, and lots of open source apps immediately available.

Large parts of Android (Google Play Services) are not open source.
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