Since simple mobile tools will soon become a spyware and I use 3 of their apps regularly, yesterday I installed F-Droid after reading many Lemmy recommendations.

Wow, I’m pleasantly surprised.

A new app I’ve tested is Spotube (Spotify open source alternative; edit: apparently it uses Spotify metadata but it streams from YouTube. My bad.).

Any other underrated app y’all recommend?

  • Pantherina@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    Aaand now uninstall it again and try F-Droid Basic. Its the version of F-Droid using modern libraries, which is way more secure. Featurewise that means modern apps have automatic updates

    Annoying but thats why I always recommend to install that APK instead. You can just install it from F-Droid.

    I tried all other F-Droid clients and they all have some bugs. G-Droid is discontinued but had an awesome rating system, Neostore has cool features but seemed buggy, Droid-ify is just fancy and has many repos preinstalled (but deactivated).

    The lack of 3rd party repos being already in the menu with just a click away is the only problem with the official clients.

  • 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    I moved a lot of my foss apps over to f-droid. But i’m a little worried about security.

    The odds of a bad actor being able to takeover f-droid and update my keepass app with a malicious version seems a lot higher than someone being able to do the same google play, right?

    • Knusper@feddit.deEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      This F-Droid-like model (also popularly implemented by Linux distributions) is usually considered an improvement in security.

      The thing with FOSS is that ideally you don’t have to trust the developer at all.
      In theory, you could read the entire source code and compile it yourself. Then you’d know for sure that no malware is included.

      Obviously, in practice, you can only hope that some nerds dig into the source code and notify journalists of malware-like behaviour.
      It is no perfect protection. But it is the only tangible protection that FOSS actually delivers.

      What does not protect you, is to trust each individual developer. They could publish innocous source code and then build the release binaries from a version with the malware-like behaviour patched in.

      But because you likely don’t want to compile each app yourself, you might still feel compelled to entrust that work to a third party. This is where the F-Droid team comes in. Rather than trusting each developer, you just have to trust a single team.

      Well, and if an app is built in a reproducible build, then even the work from the F-Droid team can be verified.

      • 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        I trust the debian repo because fortune 500 companies run debian and rely on it

        F-droid repo doesnt have the same level of scrutiny

        • Knusper@feddit.deEnglish
          0·
          10 months ago

          Yeah, that is a valid opinion to hold. I am saying that trust is garbage.

          You could consider compiling the KeePass app yourself, if you’re worried about that one in particular.
          A guy I used to study with, decided that he just wouldn’t have a password manager on his phone.
          I’ve certainly considered switching to a Linux phone for that, among many other reasons…

  • x2XS2L0U@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    Some of them are not underrated, but I’d just share my favorites…

    • AntennaPod for podcasts.
    • Aurora Store if you need some Google apps to be updated.
    • Binary Eye is a nice and slim qr code scanner and generator.
    • CriticalMaps is a good tool if you’re into critical mass events.
    • GadgetBridge can be a companion app for your smartwatch (if you have the right one).
    • GPS logger just logs your position in an interval you can set. I use it to track my movement in 30min bits.
    • GymRoutines is a privacy friendly gym exercise app with a database of your progress.
    • K9 mail (soon to be rebranded as Thunderbird mobile) is a powerful mail app.
    • KeePassDX is an android password manager compatible with keepass files.
    • LibreTorrent is a nice way to torrent your favorite linux distros while on the go.
    • Location Map Viewer I use with the gpx files I get from GPS logger to visualize my movements.
    • mpv just plays a lot of media without being a bloated thing like vlc. I use mpv for videos, vlc for music.
    • NewPipeSponsorblock is available in a custom repo only.
    • Ning is a nice way to get an overview over a local network.
    • OpenTracks can be used in combination with GadgetBridge to record your sports with gps.
    • OSMand gives you a frontend for using openstreetmap with offline maps, navigation and more.
    • PDF Doc Scan is my way to digitalize important letters as a pdf on the go.
    • StreetComplete is a gamificated way to fill in missing things in openstreetmap. it’s fun.
    • Syncthing-Fork (important to use the fork) is a file sync tool I use to backup a lot of my phones folders to a pc.
    • Tusky is my favorite way to browse mastodon.
    • VLC is a powerful media player (I then use only to shuffle through my mp3s).