Basically, what the title says. Do you use any app, that is proprietary, but either has no OSS alternatives or they’re all not good enough? If there is an alternative, what keeps you from switching?
That one DAW for electronic music… The logo had a hexagon or something… Caustic maybe?
Android Auto
I’m actually pretty happy to be using mostly FOSS apps. The exception are banking or services apps, which I’d never expect to be available as open source.
Universal Copy and Network Signal Guru. former is used to copy on text which usually unable to copy. latter is used to modify some modem setting.
All these mouse cursor touchpad for big phones-apps. They seem pretty easy to do and are quite handy.
Kde connect has that I think
No, KDE connect has a very different purpose.
Oh, I see what you mean. I thought you meant using your phone as a trackpad sorry
Termius
Not just Android, I want a cross-platform ssh client that shares keys. Termius is probably overkill for that, but I haven’t found anything else that works on Linux and Android. The real issue that made me stop paying for it is that for rpm based Linux I have to use the snap version and snap is buggy as heck with multitasking.
I was in same boat, I ended up going with Tabby for my Linux clients.
It is by no means a like for like replacement BUT you can someshat backup and sync profiles and config across machines.
Is a huge shame it doesn’t work on android though
A keyboard with swipe typing, multilingual autocorrect and speech to text support that actually works.
Other than that, my only proprietary apps are from commercial services I use and pay for (banking, Spotify, Carsharing and public transport). I’d love for them to become open source, but it’s probably not ever gonna happen, cause they rely on verifying my identity.
I’ve had a good experience with HeliBoard
Japanese has been an open issue for months now, so it’s a nope from me.
X2. I don’t like it, but I still use that libswype Google blob to get swipe-writing. I wish they could produce their own in the future.
I went with FUTO Keyboard. It’s the only keyboard that ticks all my boxes to replace GBoard so far.
I wish the swiping predictions were a bit better though.
FUTO keyboard is proprietary.
It is not. FUTO calls it “source first” which just means “open source but with rules against bad actors”. Certainly far from proprietary.
It is not open source, because it does not meet the definition of open source.
If the license doesn’t meet the OSD and does not protect four freedoms, then it is not open-source.
Jokes aside, I find that attitude not very healthy. Whether you want to call it open source or not, as I said, it’s far from proprietary, and certainly more than just source available. Dismissing it for that reason is quite unreasonable.
Jokes aside, I find that attitude not very healthy.
Calling a source-available license “not proprietary”, this is what not very healthy.
“Source-first” or “fair code” are just a fancy ways to say “proprietary”.
Does the futo keyboard allow you to paste content yet?
I briefly used it but found the lack of content pasting too much of a hindrabce.
Has options for pasting, and even a clipboard history feature? Although have not enabled that or tested it.
By pasting content, I meant pasting images. I’ve just checked it and it doesn’t do it yet. I often will take a screenshot but only copy the image because saving it pointless.
Have you tried openboard? Admittedly it doesn’t the text to soeech
yes, tried it.
Picsart. I’d like something that can do a bit of photo editing, adjust brightness/contrast/curves, work with layers, and conveniently slap together collages, but that doesn’t interrupt me in between every other operation with an ad or a request to sign up for a subscription to the app.
Have you tried Image Toolbox? It might not tick all the boxes, but it’s fairly good for me
Google Pay/Wallet
Right now tap and pay is completely and hopelessly corporate
The issue is that the digital tap-to-pay cards are actually reissued cards with their own unique numbers. They also require significant security measures to protect from cloning attacks.
So banks need a party that they can safely issue a digital card to, knowing that the card data will be stored safely.
Even a FOSS app that covers all the user’s needs is going to have a lot of trouble actually getting a card loaded into it under current standards.
I hate to say it, but crypto wallets are likely the closest thing we’re ever going to get to a FOSS tap-to-pay system. Banks are inherently corporate and capitalist, so it’s not really in their nature to make things open source.
Perhaps if there were an industry standard for issuing digital cards, instead of banks partnering with centralized wallet apps, we could procure our own digital cards to load onto our phones and watches, or integrate into other devices. But that’s a whole other battle that nobody is fighting right now.
A FOSS app for digital payments, must have a company front to sign deals with country retail store chains. Although customer kyc can be avoided, the payments from the front company to retail chains would be thru a corporate structure.
… maybe convenience is the wrong path
The advantages of PoW crypto, over digital (and PoS), it’s possible to force between seller and buyer:
- communication with end-to-end encryption
- privacy oriented marketplaces
With the goal of fostering our own private communities. Over time, might spawn a sub-culture, identity, and ultimately people hood.
My banking app ಠ_ಠ
And mine. And probably everyone else’s since the only banking app I can find on F-Droid is something called Varengold.
Tasker, because there’s no alternative.
MiXplorer (file manager), because even if not counting the features that should be a different app, it’s much better than material files.
File Manager Plus:
It connects to all my SFTP servers effortlessly, and it’s an absolutely stellar file Manager.
JuiceSSH:
Manages all my SSH servers and identities, and has an extremely usable terminal. It’s got extensions too.
Try Material Files file manager. It’s the best file manager I’ve used, connects to remote servers, and is open source
Yeah, it works, but it’s really quite clunky…
Bitwarden. Most people think that their application is open source, but more and more of their code has shifted from the GPL/AGPL licensed code to code in their SDK, which is under a proprietary license. This led to their new Android app being disqualified from being hosted in F-Droid repos.
Keyguard was supposed to be an open source Bitwarden client, but the dev chose to use a custom proprietary license, so that is source available as well.
Oh!! I didn’t know that … :/
I’ve been a paying bitwarden customer for years but i through they were moving more towards free software and not away from it… Makes me consider quitting my subscription. Why do they do this?
Well fuck me.
Makes me wish Proton had their own password manager.
Proton Pass is a thing mate take a look it might suit your needs
I don’t know much about Proton. Isn’t their back end proprietary though?
Vaultwarden ?
Edit: Nvm, that’s just the server part
That’s actually a good point too: Vaultwarden is fully open source. The official Bitwarden server also has proprietary components.
Yea but I didn’t realize the vaultwarden project didn’t also release client software.
I had looked into running my own vaultwarden, but without open source clients it’s maybe a bit moot. Although I guess the web interface can be considered a client, OS or browser integration is a convenient feature.
Just yesterday I deployed it locally, and was about to migrate from my keepasDX (+syncthing)…
Don’t get me wrong: BW is still a pretty good service, and the proprietary code is still readable by anyone, but the fact that they’re moving a bunch of their previously open source licensed code to something that’s source available is definitely unfortunate.
KeePass, on the other hand, has tons of actually open source clients, which definitely gives them an edge for people that don’t mind syncing their own DB.
They are remaking all apps as native apps so maybe this problem gets addressed too.
Their new, native android app is also using more and more of their proprietary SDK. It’s not something they’re trying to fix.
thanks for getting the word out!
Dating apps.
We need an open source completely free dating app.
No paying for matches, no limits …just they’re in your town, you look at their photos, you can talk, anyone can block anyone.
I’m with you, but see a million obstacles (aka. reasons for why things require payments).
You would need some form of moderation, to weed out illegal content as well as simply bots, spam, and dead profiles. Also for message content. I’ve given it some thought and suspect it can be crowd sourced to some degree, but also needs counter balances. Instead of limiting a profile to be live/banned, you could have a percentage score of peer-reported subjective legitimacy (ditto for message responses, heck you could even have a section of outright reviews of the person’s behaviour - although that, again would be subject to abuse and moderation).
Hosting, traffic, etc. would be an unavoidable cost, but can be mitigated with low resolution photos (VGA should be “good enough” for an initial impression, no?)
For sure, an open source solution would offer way more fine grained filtering.
I don’t really care for online dating, but I remember coming across this. They claimed to be open source.
I’m honestly pleasantly surprised to see that this project seems to be rather actively developed.
Which is completely separate from having a meaningful user base (near you), so 🤷
Which is completely separate from having a meaningful user base (near you), so 🤷
Yep, this unfortunately seems to be a much hard problem
@DarkCloud create a Mastodon instance, write your instance rules, moderate. That’s it. Plus you’ll be connected to the whole fediverse, existing client apps will work.
Great, but creating such an app would require someone to foot the bill for hosting user data, the web app and this can easily amount to quite a substantial sum. Not to mention that supporting this app would also be quite time consuming.
So write it to be decentralized, like BitTorrent or limewire, but for dating.
Then do it yourself if you think this can be done so easily.
I don’t think it would be easier, I think it’s my answer to the question asked. Look at the post again.
It’s nothing personal dude, it’s just someone’s question on the Internet. The question isn’t about whether it would be easy.
Not to mention you’d need moderation for all kinds of scams or even pedo stuff… It’s a risky one.
Legal waiver (no one under 18) and six picture limit, you can only change your pictures once a week.
Pedantic, but Google Messages’ RCS. And it’s all Google’s fault because they are holding the API hostage, probably because they want to create familiarity with the app so that people don’t switch once they finally open up.
Not pedantic at all. Google lied about RCS being an open standard.
The pedantic point would be saying that RCS, the protocol, is technically open, but the specific implementation that Google is pushing and being adopted is proprietary 🤓
So yeah. Totally fair point and fuck Google for their RCS bait-and-switch.
Not just that, but they are actively hostile and hypocritical about it. Every 1-3 months they prevent RCS from working on rooted phones or phones running alternate ROMs. The fact that they spent so much time complaining that Apple wouldn’t comply with the “open” standard while limiting users’ options on their own platform is very frustrating.
For anyone wondering:
RCS
Rich Communication Services. It is a protocol designed to enhance traditional SMS. RCS allows users to send messages that can include high-resolution images, videos, audio messages, and group chats, as well as features like read receipts, typing indicators, and location sharing.
I’m glad Google is exposing how crappy RCS is.
It’s been fifteen years, and all they have is a “protocol” that’s still completely dependant on a phone number.
What good is that? Why would I want that?
There are numerous systems that don’t rely on a phone number, e.g. XMPP did everything RCS is trying to do, in 2010 (I ran it on my phone then, with a desktop client that kept in sync).
Teleguard works on every platform, no phone number required, as does MATRIX, Simplex, Wire, Threema, etc, etc.
Not to mention the issues people have with it. It’s unreliable.
RCS is not another chat app.
It’s the NEW SMS. That is why it is so important, and that is why it works ONLY IF YOU HAVE A PHONE. Because that’s literally the point.
Having your mom, grandpa, and everyone automatically use encrypted, modern comnunication just because they have a phone is extremely important.
Realise that in places where SMS has been historically free, SMS is the standard.
XMPP, Matrix or whatever will obviously still have its place for more “incognito” conversations. But having a phone number should also give you access to a better alternative than SMS.
as I understand a phone number “gives you access to” RCS as much as it does to Signal. at that point it’s just about what was pre-installed
RCS is supposed to be a distributed protocol, just like SMS, but using data. It is not the same as Signal. Tho, currently, Google is the main provider for almost all phone companies.
