• uzi@lemmy.ca
    32·
    6 months ago

    The whole Simple apps suite should be removed because they are never going to get another update again in the F-Droid repository.

    • brie@beehaw.orgOP
      25·
      6 months ago

      F-Droid doesn’t usually remove apps that aren’t maintained, as far as I can tell. There are apps that haven’t been updated in over a decade (Quill). Since F-Droid sorts by recency of release, they tend to just sink to the bottom of searches anyway.

    • FrostyPolicy@suppo.fi
      151·
      6 months ago

      Not getting updates doesn’t make any app inherently bad. Possible bugs just won’t get fixed. If an app is feature complete and everything works as they should there’s no need to update it.

      • Stowaway
        2·
        6 months ago

        While I agree the apps shouldn’t be removed, updates aren’t just about features. Updates fix bugs, security holes, and improve performance. I’m notsaying these apps in particular have issues, though what app doesnt, just pointing it out in general.

      • jarfil@beehaw.org
        3·
        6 months ago

        The SMT apps after the buyout, are not necessarily bad either, it’s up to the new owners whether they want to keep a FOSS version as advertisement, or not.

        • Adanisi@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          Aren’t there outside contributors? How can they relicense it without their permission?

          • jarfil@beehaw.org
            3·
            6 months ago

            They can’t relicense it without permission, what they’ve done right now is fully allowed under the GPL: they’ve started charging a fee for the binary.

            The GPL allows anyone to:

            1. Offer the source for free to anyone.
            2. Charge a fee for a copy of the source.
            3. Charge a fee for a binary, while offering free, or for a nominal fee, access to the source.
            4. Not offer the source to anyone who hasn’t paid.

            So they’ve switched from case 1, to case 3 (and maybe 4).

            At any moment they can keep any part of the apps, or any of the apps, back in case 1, while asking for a fee to access the other versions (like the “Pro” ones). If they did so, then anyone who paid for a version, could ask for the source and decide to publish it for free as in case 1… or not, it’s the buyer’s choice now.

            The “kind of dick move” effect, is that F-Droid was carrying a “Simple Gallery” version which now shows a popup requiring people to pay.

            Going forward, F-Droid is carrying the Fossify Gallery, which is the same source with changed branding and no popup. SMT could still play nice and offer a “non-Pro” version of the apps that could get carried by F-Droid, which could lead someone to pay for the “Pro” version. Equally, random people could pay for the “Pro” version and make the source available to Fossify for free so they can port the changes, then have the resulting app carried by F-Droid.

            So it’s up to the new SMT owners whether they want to play ball, play hard to get, or get forked away.

            • Adanisi@lemmy.zipEnglish
              1·
              6 months ago

              Yeah I know that’s allowed under the GPL, but you mentioned them “choosing to keep a FOSS version”, which if they didn’t do that would mean relicensing. It’s still FOSS here.

              • jarfil@beehaw.org
                1·
                6 months ago

                I meant it in the sense they could discontinue the FOSS version and roll their own privative one in its place. They’re “simple” apps after all, wouldn’t be too hard to make a simple clone. What they’ve really bought is a trademark/placeholder (along or not with a company, I haven’t looked much into the details).

          • SigHunter@feddit.de
            1·
            6 months ago

            they don’t care and as long as no court ruled, they do what they want, which will probably work out for them

    • limitedduck@awful.systems
      8·
      6 months ago

      Simple Calendar Pro got an update in October, that’s not too far back

      Edit: Just saw the news of the purchase was from Dec.

      • brie@beehaw.orgOP
        8·
        6 months ago

        Their point regarding old and unmaintained apps seems a bit silly. Getting the same old and unmaintained app from the app’s website isn’t going to make it any safer. You’re still going to need to switch to a different app/fork to get updates.

    • chameleon@kbin.social
      21·
      6 months ago

      Everything was forked and should eventually end up on F-Droid, but most things haven’t had a release yet. My understanding is that they’re hoping to do everything right immediately, including having proper new branding and all the shared functionality from Simple Thank You.

      The F-Droid versions of SMT apps are perfectly safe and shouldn’t be going anywhere. (But if you have Google Play versions, I wouldn’t trust those anymore, those are owned by ZipoApps now.)

      • dhhyfddehhfyy4673@fedia.io
        1·
        6 months ago

        Cool, thanks for the info! All of mine are f-droid and figured they’d be okay for now. Definitely looking to switch though but I’m lazy and prefer to do things through f-droid lol