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DATE | 2016-05-14 |
FROM | Rick Moen
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SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout-NYLXS] Android app ecosystem (was: Worlds Biggest
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Re-researching those APK sources, to verify that they actually at least claim to check the licence for each entry: On reflection, I remembered the lesson that major lists often completely fail to try [**COUGH*** SourceForge ***COUGH*** [1] ].
> https://f-droid.org/ > F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source > Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it > easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.
Yes! Appears to do it right.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open-source_Android_applications > This is an incomplete list of notable applications (apps) that run on > the Android platform that meet guidelines for free software and > open-source software. For a more extensive list of apps, see the > External links section below.
Yes.
> http://www.aopensource.com/ > The Android Open Source ressources and software database.
Yes.
> https://prism-break.org/en/categories/android/
Yes. Site does link to proprietary Android codebases along with open source ones, but is quite clear about which is which, and has a variety of other useful content.
> http://droid-break.info/ > Droid-Break is a list of free and open source Android apps inspired by > Prism-Break. Our purpose is to show you high quality alternatives to the > big proprietary solutions.
Yes.
> https://github.com/pcqpcq/open-source-android-apps > This is a collection of Android Apps which are open source. > I believe that we can find something interesting and gain helpful skills > from an open source app.
Yes.
> https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-best-open-source-Android-apps
Sort of, but not really. Quora being a crowdsourced Q&A site, this item has a motley collection of answers from various people, some of whom get it completely wrong and suggest proprietary Android apps, and essentially no answer specifies licences for items suggested -- which highlights why this is important. It's not that you need to know that app [FOO] is under Apache License; it's that absence of attention to the question makes inclusion of inappropriate entries very likely.
Many of the answers are well worth reading anyway.
> https://fossdroid.com/ > Free and open source Android apps
Yes. Slick site, BTW.
> https://opensource.com/life/15/1/going-open-source-android-f-droid > [Article about F-Droid.] (Not applicable, as it's just an article.)
All of the following additional entries adequately note licensing except as noted:
http://www.mobilegap.net/#open-sourced-mobile-applications-for-android-mobile-platform Open sourced mobile applications for Android mobile platform [RM: small list]
http://opensourceandroidapps.com/ Free and open-source software is good for you and good for the world. These are the best open source Android apps that we know of. [Again, small list. Licensing information missing: All the apps turned out to be open source, but it's left for the reader to find the licensing details for each.]
https://alternativeto.net/platform/android/?license=opensource AlternativeTo is a free service that helps you find better alternatives to the products you love and hate. [RM: Being crowdsourced, site is vulnerable to goofy errors, but still useful. And it completely _fails_ on licence information, which can nonetheless often be gotten easily on linked sites.]
https://code.google.com/archive/p/apps-for-android/ A collection of useful, open source applications that demonstrate basic features of the Android platform. [RM: Small, but nice.]
http://playboard.me/android/channels/52f279c34dc454c54a7c511f apps found from xda-develpers.com , aopensource.com, Wikipedia, droidbreak.neocities.org , quora.com and some blogs.....and finally curated by me :) [Abhimanyu Agrawal] [RM: He doesn't cite licence information, but links only to repos that carry only open source code.]
On a different subject, this new page may be of interest to some: http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Debian/openrc-conversion.html (I have added it to http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page#Other_useful_sites .)
[1] When I worked at VA Linux Systems, I examined all SourceForge projects buildable for PalmOS, and kept finding ones where the claimed licensing was wrong, or code was in obvious violation of a third party's copyrights, or where submitter's choosing licence category 'Other' concealed an outright proprietary licence, and brought my list of these problems to the managers in charge of SourceForge.net. They advised that all licensing and copyright information was self-reported by the uploaders and offered 'as is', and that VA Linux Systems, Inc. would be taking no measures to investigate or correct errors or misstatements.
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