Pocket Casts -- Awesome Open Source
Thanks to Automattic, the strongly open source company behind WordPress, another great product Pocket Casts goes open source! Awesome!
This is a great alternative to my current favourite podcast app, AntennaPod which is available on F-Droid.
Users: FOSS Matters
Quoting Chief TWiT leo@twit.social:
Now that we're learning this lesson that centralized silos are brittle and operate in the interest of the owners not the users......please note the move toward centralizing podcasts into apps from Amazon/Audible, Spotify, iHeart, YouTube, TikTok etc.
If you like podcasts, use an RSS-based podcast player. Support the open ecosystem...
My favourite podcast: The Self-Hosted Show (direct Pocket-Casts link to it).
Developers: Progress Needed
FOSS Apps live in FOSS App Stores
The Pocket Casts app is currently published only in the proprietary Google and Apple app stores [1]. I have voted for their “Add to F-Droid” issue and hope that they will agree to do so and that some nice folks will contribute to help make that happen. (Of course there is no analogous option for Apple users, as Apple locks all their users in their walled garden.)
FOSS Apps live in FOSS Forges
The source code and development process of Pocket Casts is currently hosted on the proprietary Microsoft Github, sadly, like Millions of Free Software developers forgot why it matters to own their tools. In my strong opinion, to better serve FOSS as a whole they would GiveUpGithub and move to a FOSS software forge provider such as Codeberg.org and/or host a FOSS code forge at their own domain.
[1] As a techie you could also download it from the release assets section of their app source repository, but for general users that doesn't count.
More: #awesomeFOSS #degoogled #android
Feedback:
- email me:
julian@foad.me.uk - matrix me:
@julian:foad.me.uk
Donations gratefully accepted
Feedback:
- email me:
julian@foad.me.uk - matrix me:
@julian:foad.me.uk
Donations gratefully accepted
FOSS Apps Live in FOSS App Stores!
Don't lock a FOSS Android app in Google's proprietary store!Many of us are looking to FOSS solutions in order to keep our digital lives under our own control. We don't accept that any Big Tech company should hold the keys to a vast swathe of our digital life. So on our smart phones we may choose to use a FOSS version of Android. That means one that uses the open source parts of Android but avoids the proprietary Google lock-in parts. These so-called “deGoogled” Android-compatible operating systems include LineageOS, Murena /e/-OS, CalyxOS, GrapheneOS and more. Users of non-Google phones can find various “back door” ways to obtain apps from Google's play-by-our-rules-store, but that's completely the wrong way. FOSS apps should be available through FOSS app stores such as F-Droid.
F-Droid is not only an app store, it's also a protocol or “app store kit” that allows anyone to publish their own F-Droid-compatible app store. (I set up one up just to publish one camera app for myself and friends.) Each app publisher can choose whether to publish their app in the F-Droid store following its rules and conditions, or publish on their own store where they can set their own rules and conditions. Each user can decide which F-Droid-compatible stores they want to use, according to their own assessment of the publisher's reputation.
Read more about F-Droid:
These fine FOSS people do it right
- FUTO Circles a.k.a. Circuli, matrix-based private social media — published in their own f-droid repo [1]
These fine FOSS people need a nudge
- Pocket Casts — issue filed: “Add to F-Droid” (I've up-voted it)
TODO: add lots more examples
These Fine People Understand
Read More
- FOSDEM '23 talk
Sat 15:00Reckoning with new app store changes: Is now our chance? — Recent legal and policy developments around app stores and what they mean for free software- FOSDEM '23 talk
Sat 16:00EU alternative to app stores — Guardian Project tooted: “At #FOSDEM,@marcel_kolajawill present the #EU pilot project to look into open-sourcing the EU's apps and publishing them outside of #BigTech including on @[url=https://mastodon.technology/users/fdroidorg]fdroidorg[/url]. @[url=https://social.librem.one/users/eighthave]Hans-Christoph Steiner[/url] will join, talking about how F-Droid will help pull the EU towards #FreeSoftware. Join us!”[1] An f-droid repo link is not a web page. To use it, you open your f-droid app's “repositories” settings and add the link there.
Related: – FOSS Apps Live in FOSS Forges– Your FOSS Project Deserves its Own Domain
More: #degoogled #awesomeFOSS #selfHosted #GiveUpGithub #DitchDiscord
Feedback:
- email me:
julian@foad.me.uk- matrix me:
@julian:foad.me.ukDonations gratefully accepted
Feedback:
- email me:
julian@foad.me.uk- matrix me:
@julian:foad.me.ukDonations gratefully accepted
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