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prey / prey-android-client

Android client for the Prey anti-theft software.
http://preyproject.com
GNU General Public License v3.0
429 stars 185 forks source link

Add prey to f-droid store #152

Open wuniversales opened 4 years ago

tomkel commented 4 years ago

yes please! This would show you are truly committed to open source software and principles

fabianski7 commented 4 years ago

https://github.com/prey/prey-android-client/issues/84

IzzySoft commented 4 years ago

Essentially #84 indeed is holding this back: the app uses Firebase, FCM and Google Services (eg. for location), so for F-Droid to pick it up it would need a build flavor that comes without those (but then could add the camouflage back – it's not the Android OS not permitting such a feature, but rather Google Play AFAIK).

For starters, the APK could be attached to releases/ here – so it would at least be reachable for those outside of Google's walled garden (like owners of Huawei devices, or users of Google-free custom ROMs). I might even add it to my repo then, though I normally do not add security apps with Firebase bindings (with proprietary stuff you can never be sure what it does) – and especially not with proprietary analytics libraries (here: Crashlytics).

RokeJulianLockhart commented 2 years ago

Please consider this, not least because although much software is available via not merely the main, but 3rd-party repositories, and the userbase consists of many users, you would possess monopoly, and provide superior control to yourselves of what your software is dependent upon, because the Play Store is notoriously metaphorically opaque when it decides that your software, which currently competes with one of Google's products, is too problematic to continue to host.

RokeJulianLockhart commented 2 years ago

However, @prey, please be aware that although @IzzySoft is correct that your repository must be modified for it to be accepted into F-Droid's default repository, they were merely referring to its default repository, and the repository that @IzzySoft manages.

You probably possess experience with Debian and Fedora. How many people do not need to utilise Fedora's COPR ever? Few. Less never add Personal Package Archives to Debian, and both of are ultimately identical to their native "repositories". Additionally, Fedora's RPMFusion, and Ubuntu's proprietary repositories are identically as frequently utilised. Consequently, I believe that you should at least expose the binary .APK-installers that your CI currently creates via an F-Droid repository that you host, because it would allow me to invest in your software, which I am alternatively unable to do because of my lack of Google Play Store and rational dissuasion to manual updating of software.

IzzySoft commented 2 years ago

That's correct, an own repo is a fully valid approach. As for my repo, I'd just need the APK attached to its corresponding release; inclusion criteria for my repo are a little more relaxed than those on F-Droid – so while I recommend to leave all proprietary stuff out (else it's not really FOSS), I usually close an eye on things like FCM (unless the app covers sensitive material, such as apps for health, finances, children etc).

RokeJulianLockhart commented 2 years ago

@ghost, has "http://github.com/prey/prey-android-client/issues/82#issuecomment-93989938" progressed?