F-Droid

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F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.

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Simple Mobile Tools is dead, long live FossifyX! (feddit.de)

submitted 9 months ago by d_k_bo@feddit.de to c/fdroid@lemmy.ml

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As reported in a reddit post and confirmed in a github discussion, Simple Mobile Tools is being sold to ZippoApps which is known for shady business practices.

It is not yet clear whether they will make the app suite closed source (which would infringe the rights of all contributors since they contributed under the GPLv3 license).

In response to that situation, one of the main contributors forked the project under the name FossifyX and will continue to work on it.

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[–] JoYo@lemmy.ml 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

that’s good, these tools have been abandoned and unusable on chromebooks ever since the switch to ARCVM.

Edit: I get the feeling that none of you know what ARCVM is.

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 9 months ago

Chromebooks are not even possible to degoogle. If you use these devices, you buy into Google...

[–] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is open source at its best: the original developer somehow decided to sell out to the dark side and someone rescued the projects within a couple of days. Brillant!

And thank goodness for that too: I used SMT Calendar but Etar misses a couple of features I really need that would make it a good replacement, so I'll be sure to install FossifyX Calendar as soon as F-Droid picks it up.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I dunno much about these licenses but is it possible the new owners could nullify the GPL rights? Like "no you can no longer fork this code that you could previously"?

Just trying to figure out exactly what their motive is here...

[–] d_k_bo@feddit.de 0 points 9 months ago

(IANAL)

Since the software is already distributed under the terms of the GPLv3 (which guarantees irrevocable rights) there is no way to forbid any distribution of the current version of the software.

It is however possible to distribute future works under a different license, but only if you aren't bound by the GPL yourself. This would be the case if you wrote the code yourself or all contributors grant you the right to do so (eg. using a Contributor License Agreement).