[HN Gopher] Fossify - Open-source fork of Simple Mobile Tools
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Fossify - Open-source fork of Simple Mobile Tools
Author : vanous
Score : 133 points
Date : 2024-01-15 16:29 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| vanous wrote:
| After Simple Mobile Tools have been lost to an adware company
| [1], the FossifyOrg forked and modified apps started slowly
| coming via Fdroid.
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38505229
| mikeryan wrote:
| Between "fork" and "floss" (typo?) in the title I read this as
| being about something else entirely when scanning headlines.
| zootboy wrote:
| FLOSS = Free / Libre Open Source Software. It's meant to be a
| more specific version of FOSS, making the point that it's using
| a properly "libre" license, and not just free of charge and
| source-available.
| timtom39 wrote:
| I am happy about this fork. Simple Mobile Tools _were_ some of
| the better non spying free android apps.
| p4bl0 wrote:
| I didn't know SMT had been lost to an adware company... That's
| really sad. I'm a big time user of most of the apps in this
| project! Many of them are very good Android apps even compared to
| paid alternatives.
|
| I'm especially pissed by this move because I used this project
| quite a lot in the free software development course that I teach.
| Many students want to gain experience in mobile development, and
| helping them make their first open source contribution to this
| project was a great way for them to learn mobile development and
| at the same time learn to contribute to an open source project
| (which requires many skills that are not all related to
| programming, hence having a specific course). I think we
| collectively made a dozen of PR last year for reported bugs or
| requested features in SMT apps.
|
| Now it's like I made my students work for free for a shit company
| and to be honest I feel disgusted by that.
|
| I'm really glad this fork is a thing, I hope it will work, and I
| hope the maintainers will be able to continue to publish
| seamlessly on F-Droid so that the switch is automatic, but I'm
| not sure that's even possible.
| vanous wrote:
| Automatic switch is not possible due to different signatures,
| which is in fact a good thing. If the Fossify project keeps it
| running, contribution of your students is not lost at all.
| CorrectHorseBat wrote:
| Doesn't F-Droid sign with their key instead of the developers
| key? (More like the Linux distribution model)
|
| At least I thought that was the reason Signal doesn't like
| F-Droid, but now we see how this can actually be better. It's
| a matter of who you trust more.
| renegat0x0 wrote:
| I see that fossify gallery is already on fdroid. Thanks!
| vanous wrote:
| Yes! The Phone app seems to have been released today. I am just
| an ordinary user, no affiliation with the project. I used
| pretty much all the SMT apps, so now I am slowly migrating to
| these new alternatives as they come out. I just hope that the
| project is based on better foundation and on a community,
| rather than an individual.
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| I have been using eOS for years without any of the Simple Mobile
| apps. I have checked them out on occasion and I wouldn't call
| them "bad" but I have always been able to find more capable open
| source apps that fit my needs better.
|
| Just one example, I've used Material Files for years and it has
| quite a few features not found in Simple File Manager.
| vanous wrote:
| There are so many file managers:), but not enough quality,
| functioning dialers and messaging apps. Many "simple" ones
| exist with lack of essential features. Even SMT lacks some
| essentials, like for example to be able to reply with a message
| to a call (when busy).
| timtom39 wrote:
| What did you find for a gallery? I never found an open one I
| liked other than simple gallery.
| nelblu wrote:
| I love Aves, I switched to it from simple gallery
| https://github.com/deckerst/aves
| networked wrote:
| Note that the fork Fossify Gallery is already available on
| F-Droid. The rest of the apps aren't yet.
|
| https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fossify.gallery/
|
| Thanks to this debacle, I'll actually be trying it out.
|
| What I have used out of Simple Mobile Tools is the Dialer. It
| allowed me to make my old phone usable for calls again. The
| phone, which runs an outdated release of LineageOS and
| doesn't receive updates, developed a problem. The screen
| would turn off when dialing or on a call. This prevented one
| from even hanging up. I experimentally installed Simple
| Dialer to see if the dialer app was the cause. (Because
| Simple Dialer was on F-Droid, and I had heard about Simple
| Mobile Tools.) It didn't help on its own. Then I went through
| the settings and saw one that disabled the proximity sensor
| during calls. I tried turning on the setting, and that did
| it.
|
| This apparently used to be an option in the AOSP phone app: h
| ttps://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/80227/phone..
| .. Simple Dialer has been forked as
| https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Phone.
| astrolx wrote:
| Aaah that does it, thanks. My phone started having the
| exact same issue the other day. Finding a fix was on my to
| do list, and you saved me some time, thanks!
| vanous wrote:
| There's now liberated version of the SMT gallery up in
| Fdroid. I already switched Calendar, Gallery and File
| Manager.
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| I stopped looking when I installed e/OS.
|
| Their default Gallery app is adequate for my needs and
| integrates well with the camera and messaging app and has
| never nagged me to upgrade to the "pro" version.
|
| I'm pretty sure it is a modified version from Android open
| source/Lineage.
| maxloh wrote:
| Gallery [0] and Glimpse (byLineageOS) [1] are some good
| choices, both designed with Material You.
|
| I use the first one on a daily basis.
|
| [0]: https://github.com/IacobIonut01/Gallery
|
| [1]: https://github.com/lineage-
| next/android_packages_apps_Glimps...
| dspillett wrote:
| _> Why? [...] I have always been able to find more capable open
| source apps..._
|
| Because a lot of people use those apps and are familiar with
| them. While it isn't difficult to replace them it could be
| quite faffy evaluating alternatives, making sure they work the
| same (or better), are reliable, aren't hiding gotchas like also
| being stalk-ware, etc.
| acqbu wrote:
| Everyone has a price...
| vanous wrote:
| Yes. The positive is that the code is left behind. I am
| sympathetic with (and sorry for) those who will not learn fast
| enough about the acquisition and will have their private data
| sucked out. That's why I posted it here, after I learned about
| it only today.
| maxloh wrote:
| I am more concerned about the licensing issues.
|
| Seems that the original author recieved some external
| contribution in GPLv3.
| ac130kz wrote:
| Good job! Some of these apps have been pure pleasure to use.
| janice1999 wrote:
| Glad to see it got forked by a long time contributor [0].
|
| Naveen, are you on HN?
|
| [0] https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Music-
| Player/com...
| jph wrote:
| Naveen Singh is leading Fossify and these projects. If you admire
| open source and volunteer projects, and if you're able to donate
| or sponsor, here's a way: https://github.com/naveensingh
| neilv wrote:
| Latest version in F-Droid of Calendar is dated 2023-10-08. I
| haven't checked whether that version exfiltrates user's data. I'd
| be more concerned about any subsequent versions.
|
| https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.calend...
| nani8ot wrote:
| It's highly unlikely that any F-Droid versions are going to be
| released by the ad-ware company. This company doesn't publish
| code as open source, and tibbi (original creator of SMT) is of
| the opinion that relicensing the code isn't a big deal because
| they wrote almost all of it.
|
| https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issu...
| maxloh wrote:
| A friendly reminder: it would be better to duplicate a repository
| instead of forking it.
|
| GitHub does not show forked repositories in search results, and I
| recall reading an article that forked repositories got deleted
| when the user gets blocked by the original author (though I can't
| find the exact article).
| ericra wrote:
| Just wanted to say thank you for doing this. I was just looking
| for some replacements for Simple Mobile Tools replacements the
| other day.
|
| I wish you the best and hope you get enough community financial
| support to continue the project indefinitely.
| NoboruWataya wrote:
| I was sad to see this as a long-time used of SMT. Kudos to Naveen
| for taking the initiative in forking. I hope it doesn't turn out
| to be too much work for him (+ other contributors who help out).
| I imagine it's a big endeavour trying to fork all of the apps.
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