Plus, Obtainium can also use the github directly which neo-store does not, right?
It has a lot of sources.
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it makes more sense to get apks from source (github,gitlab,codeberg) with obtainium! I could even use obtainium to catch app that are only on f-droid… like osmand~…but they are still not signed by the devs though…
another example of why f-droid is bad:
newpipe v0.25.1 was out on april 3rd on github… f-droid still has v0.25.0!
apps are late in f-droid. and neo-store.
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Think about any source that you want to obtain apps from; Obtainium can do it or will be able to do it in the future.
the only use i have for f-droid is the website itself, f-droid.org!
Why? To find FOSS apps! you can click on “source code” and copy the url of the source and paste it in obtainium if you like the app!
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I just saw that this thread started in 2022.
Maybe the original post needs to be updated.
You can vote for this to be added to the recommendations. Just press that vote button if you want to.
its going on top of the list don’t worry LOL!
I think privacyguides prefers app to have bugs weeded out and have official releases… but its still pretty solid and stable. It’s rather safe to use. I would like it to be mentioned in privacyguides.org in a special box saying one could “try” it, but not 100% rely on it since it has no official release.
i didnt know there was a vote button LOL
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I never had any issues with Obtainium, and I have a feeling that the app will be in beta until they make unattended updates work, so it doesn’t really matter that there is no release.
some people do have bugs… look at the release notes… the current version notes has a “bugfix” on top of it!
personnally, ive never had the slightest of problems with it.
I would be in favor of recommending it instead of using an RSS feed reader at this point after using it for over a month to manage my own apps.
It is true that it still doesn’t do unattended updates, but neither does a feed reader.
The fact that it allows easy management of even third-party F-Droid repositories is good in that it allows people to obtain apps directly from developer repositories that don’t publish it on GitHub/Lab etc. without needing an F-Droid client.
Due to its added complexity, it’s likely that an issue or two will pop up here and there rather than the much more manual approach of the feed reader, but I still think it’s at a place where it’s worth considering recommending it to people.
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I still believe it is a huge footgun by removing the curation aspect.
Users getting random apks from GitHub repos just sets us a decade back.
Users will end up installing something they think is open source (“because GitHub”) despite being proprietary.
And users will end up installing some fake typo-squatted repo with actual malware.
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I see what you mean and I agree, but Privacy Guides already recommends getting apps via RSS feeds, so I don’t think Obtainium makes that worse. I think it’s another conversation entirely if people should stick to curated stores and what those should be, what criteria said curation happens based upon (which we will likely disagree on) etc.
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Any updates on this? Obtainium even has XAPK support right now.
At this point, Obtainium is superior to an RSS method in every way.
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Yes, Obtainium is definitely preferable to managing RSS yourself. It’s a very convenient app.
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@dngray have you looked at Obtainium at all lately? I’m gonna download it again tonight, because the UX does seem to be much improved. I’m down to reconsider this one even without seamless updates.
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The number of sources is pretty amazing. You can even obtain apps from websites, but it uses web scraping, which isn’t very reliable.
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I have a couple of things to add to this thread:
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Anonymous Aurora store accounts are now rate limited by Google, meaning users must use RSS feeds if they want reliable and safe app updates without logging into a google account.
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RSS feeds don’t work in cases such as Brave browser because there are 2-3 beta and nightly releases per day and no way to filter stable releases without using some external tool/website/IOT setup.
Therefore, I do not think RSS feeds as they are recommend now are a solution, because if a users feed is clogged with articles, it is inevitable they will accidentally miss a critical app update. RSS does not notify users if they miss an app update. (Nextcloud also includes pre-releases on GitHub as does Firefox, probably not an exhaustive list)
I think based upon these reasons, we have to recommend some kind of external tool on the website (maybe Obtainium) which can properly filter GitHub/GitLab releases.
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Interesting app, what would one do for apps like banking where I can only get them from the gulag store?