I'm really slow off the mark sometimes.
Soon after I got my first Android device in 2022 and installed F-Droid, I started finding apps from;
https://simplemobiletools.com/
They were so easy and pleasant to use that I promoted them here, encouraging anyone using using them to donate to the developer, Tibor Kaputa. I even considered buying the Simple Phone he was selling;
(1/3)
#TIL - more than a year after the fact - that just as I was considering that Simple Phone purchase, in 2023;
https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/110484098671876293
... Tibor Kaputa was preparing to sell the apps to ZipoApps, a company well know for buying up popular apps and enshittifying them with DataFarming, ads, etc, and sure enough;
https://forum.f-droid.org/t/simple-mobile-apps-update/24384/38
I had noticed that the Simple apps I use hadn't been updated in F-Droid for a suspiciously long time, and now I know why.
(2/3)
Fortunately some developers stepped up to fork the Simple apps under the name Fossify;
So we can still have that simple, pleasant app experience we know and love, with regular updates via F-Droid or our app manager of choice.
This is a textbook example of how Free Code licenses, which enshrine the software freedoms of the people who use software, can protect us from enshittification.
(3/3)
Yesterday I swapped out all the Simple Mobile Tools apps I've been using for the Fossify forks. It was surprisingly painless. #HatTip to the folks maintaining these.
The original Free Code versions of the apps were built with export/ import tools, for both data and settings in some cases. Obviously the Fossify versions have that too, and it worked seamlessly. I've still got the Simple APS installed in case of any gotchas, but if none crop up I'll delete them in a week or so.
This is a bonfire demo instance for testing purposes
