• Raverbunny@aussie.zone
    0·
    2 years ago

    I installed both Sync and Infinity on the same day and I’ve mostly used Infinity since, I just don’t get the fuss about Sync, I think it’s only nostalgia from its Reddit users tbh (I used Boost for Reddit fwiw).

  • Digester@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’ve tried pretty much all the FOSS Lemmy apps I could get my hands on but the experience Sync provides is far superior. I’m an ex Boost user and since I couldn’t find Boost for Lemmy I naturally gravitated towards Sync and I’m not looking back.

  • jacktherippah@lemdro.idEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’m also a huge believer in open source. I’m using Infinity for Lemmy right now but I gladly paid for the ad removal in Sync. It genuinely is the best Lemmy app out right now. It just works and has so many customization options. Not to mention, since Sync uses Google for ads, when you remove the ads, the ad component isnt initialized so you remove the tracking. So nothing to worry about there either. 20$ lifetime for such an awesome app is totally fair for me. That’s my opinion, you are free to disagree.

  • The dogspaw English
    0·
    2 years ago

    Don’t worry voyager I’ll never leave you and captain Janeway

  • LibertyBeta@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    I have Sync and Thunder for now. I love thunder for the Flutter, but sync just works perfectly.

    Maybe they’ll catch up someday, but I’m okay paying for software now and then.

  • archiotterpup@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    Sure, if those other apps worked for me. But they didn’t. Feeds wouldn’t refresh. Local would show. And comments wouldn’t post.

  • blunderworld@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Yeah, because why should app developers get paid, right? They should all code for free at their local public library. Maybe live in a big ceramic jar like Diogenes.

      • blunderworld@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        In my experience you can have:

        1. Good app that is free with ads,
        2. Good app that is paid without ads,
        3. Shit to mediocre app that is free without ads.

        I’ve tried many alternatives, but so far the intuitiveness and beautiful UX of Sync stand apart from the competition for me. I respect FOSS apps, and even prefer them in some cases. But let’s not pretend that its the best approach for every developer, or that anyone who releases a non-FOSS app is automatically greedy or sketchy.

    • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
      0·
      2 years ago

      “Free” as in “freedom”, not price. There’s nothing stopping somebody from making money on FOSS.

      Goddam Richard Stallman really screwed the PR up on that one with the “free” thing.

      • 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        2 years ago

        It’s more a limitation of the english language… No distinction between free as in beer or free as in freedom… We’re stuck with the same word

          • Franklin@lemmy.world
            0·
            2 years ago

            I wouldn’t sweat it too much, The fact that someone could make money on this gets in the way of their narrative.

            I don’t really mind that sync is closed source you should be able to have the freedom to use whatever you want and all it is is more choice but I’ll be damned if I’m going to use it.

          • blunderworld@lemmy.caEnglish
            0·
            2 years ago

            Like who? Making an actual living I mean, not just collecting small donations to ‘buy them a coffee’ or whatever.

            Not saying you’re wrong, but some examples would be welcome.

            Edit: Down voting me for asking a question, lol. Way to demonstrate your dedication to that free and open philosophy you apparently advocate for, folks.

            • newIdentity@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              0·
              2 years ago

              Blender, Wikipedia, Linux, RedHat and even the project you’re using right now: Lemmy

              There actually are a lot of people making a living out of making open source projects

              • blunderworld@lemmy.caEnglish
                0·
                2 years ago

                Ill admit im not very familiar with blender, linux, or redhat, so ill look into those – thank you.

                My understanding is that nobody owns lemmy, rather people own the instances that make up lemmy. Which is definitely in the spirit of FOSS, but based on my understanding (happy to be proven wrong) I dont think its accurate to say the creators of Lemmy are making a living from it. You can donate to the admins of the instances you use, I suppose.

                Likewise, isn’t the main source of income for Wikipedia donations? They ask me for one every time I’m on the site.

                So other than semantics, what’s really the difference in making a donation to a service like Wikipedia, and paying for Sync? You can think of paying to remove ads as a donation if that helps, but the fact remains that lemmy is already available for free, and is much smaller than organizations like Wikipedia or Linux. Dude has got to eat.

                • newIdentity@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                  0·
                  2 years ago

                  Nope. The devs make a living out of it. They work on Lemmy full time. They are sponsored by NLnet and are paid for every feature they implement

                • newIdentity@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                  0·
                  2 years ago

                  Compleatly forgot to answer your other quesntion:

                  Yes the main income is donations. The difference is that you don’t need to pay if you can’t afford it and people who donate are generally paying more on average. The huge difference is that everyone has access to everything without paying.

                  Imagine what would happen if you would have to pay to use Wikipedia: nobody would use it. The content is made by users and if they would have made it a paid encyclopedia it wouldn’t have any users.

            • itsJoelle@lemmy.world
              0·
              2 years ago

              See: RedHat devs and all the FOSS orgs that actually pay devs to work on their shit.

              Google, Meta, and AMD have people on their to team they pay for development on FOSS projects because their operations rely upon them, so they have a vested interest in maintaining them.

              • ech0@lemdro.idEnglish
                0·
                2 years ago

                He means provide an example of a single indie Dev doing it. You’re being obtuse because you know that there’s no one.

                • itsJoelle@lemmy.world
                  0·
                  2 years ago

                  I don’t understand. I reread back to the top comment and went down the chain. They made a rhetorical question about how devs of software being paid. Someone clarified the definition of Foss. Then there was a an inquiry about how someone could make a living with FOSS software and another commenter claiming millions do it (which a majority are these exact devs I pointed out).

                  I simply gave the list, that’s all.

              • blunderworld@lemmy.caEnglish
                0·
                2 years ago

                So the best solution to make a living as a FOSS developer is to… Work for some giant tech monopoly who engages in sketchy consumer practices on a regular basis?

                AFAIK Sync was created by a single person, so I doubt he’s getting paid by anyone other than fans of the app and ad revenue. I’ll look into RedHat though, I appreciate you taking the time to provide an actual example.

                • itsJoelle@lemmy.world
                  0·
                  2 years ago

                  Not a problem. Also FOSS orgs pay their devs as well. Off the top of my head OS developers with a large userbase often pay their devs through donations to foundations that fund the project. Often donors are companies as well, but it gives a developer the option to get paid without working for a massive company.

                  (I suppose indirectly they do, but that’s a whole different ball of wax)

      • blunderworld@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        The F in FOSS stands for free, IIRC. The ability to access, use, share the code, etc. has more to do with the open source part of the acronym. I haven’t really seen anyone complain about Sync being closed sourced so far… Just that you have to pay not to see ads.

        Ive only ever seen FOSS developers get support through donations. Which is nice and all, but likely not enough for an independent developer like ljdawson to survive on alone.

        Dont get me wrong, I like FOSS apps too, but the experience almost always suffers to some degree; its easy to see why. I just don’t get why Sync is being singled out like some kind of evil tech monopoly lately. As far as I can tell, its just an individual developer who released a great app for free (yes with ads, you’re the product, blah blah blah) with an optional lifetime payment to disable ads completely.

          • blunderworld@lemmy.caEnglish
            0·
            2 years ago

            Well then what’s the issue? Because every complaint I’ve seen so far has been about the optional monetary facet.

            • Captain Beyond@linkage.ds8.zone
              0·
              2 years ago

              I think people are complaining about ads because ads imply tracking. I don’t know, I use Jerboa because I value the four freedoms, I’m not out here protesting non-free apps because the free apps work well enough for me.

              • blunderworld@lemmy.caEnglish
                0·
                2 years ago

                AFAIK the way ad revenue works is dependent on trackers. Paying to remove ads on Sync also removes all trackers according to many people who have tested it; still seems to come down to not wanting to pay the developer.

                Which is fine, of course. I just think framing the app as sketchy or something is completely misguided.

                • 30p87@feddit.de
                  0·
                  2 years ago

                  Are Sync Free and Sync Paid Edition separate apps? Because if not, you still have some ad publishers framework on your phone and running. I’d guess it’s Google, which means play services are required. That’s a big no-go for degoogled Linux users.

    • CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 years ago

      I’ve tried a few of the other apps, and didn’t like them that much. Sync is the first one I actually liked. Not sure if I want to pay for it, though