Simple Mobile Tools bought by ZipoApps
Simple Mobile Tools bought by ZipoApps
github.com
Simple Mobile Tools bought by ZipoApps? · Issue #241 · SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion
27 comments
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oh man, it's the QuickPic fiasco all over again. at least this time the apps can be forked by someone.
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Thank goodness lol. That was tragic.
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omg quickpic
a blast from the past that I forgot about
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I don't even use SM apps (I've tried a few and they're great for simple, straightforward, no-BS, functional apps), and I'm very glad to hear there's already a fork.
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Dumb question because I'm not fluent in License-Lore: which license would be best at preventing others (or me from the future) from selling / closing down the licensed work? Would it be GPL, AGPL, MPL, something else?
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Obligatorily: I am not a lawyer, and license law is complicated.
MPL wouldn't be the best choice, since it is per-file. GPL is copyleft and viral, meaning that if you make a modification and distribute the software, you must provide your modified source code under the GPL. AGPL is stricter in terms of when source code must be released; primarily it targets server software where the user interacts with the software, but does not actually download the software itself. The GPL wouldn't require releasing source code, but the AGPL would.
As skullgiver mentioned, if you want to relicense, it would be best to use a CLA. The key to preventing yourself from being able to relicense your project (to a proprietary license or otherwise) is to ensure that other people are licensing their contributions to you under the GPL, without a CLA giving you exceptions, so that you yourself must follow their licensing terms. The Linux kernel for example is locked into the GPLv2, because they used a version of the GPL that does not provide for "upgrading" to newer versions of the GPL, and there are too many people who have contributed to the code to get all together to agree on a relicensing.
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So this just looks like the Community has to take care of the projects and/or find alternatives
Alternatives
File manager - Material Files
That one doesnt have the security vulnerability and I think it is also better. But they are pretty much equal.
Simple Gallery - Aves
I prefer Simple Gallery though, it is pretty great
Simple dialer - Welefon
Very basic, I personally use ACR phone for call recording, with disabled internet permissions. The Dev asked on Reddit about opensourcing the App and got negative responses, so maybe unlikely.
Simple Keyboard - Florisboard
Currently unmaintained but awesome. I hope it gets revived.
Simple Calculator
My favourite: Mint Calculator
Simple SMS
AOSP SMS/MMS, Quik Sms
Deku SMS supports encryption. This is not a replacement for secure messengers, metadata is still a mess, but it is pretty cool.
AOSP SMS is poorly hard to find. That would be great on F-Droid. It also uses old libraries.
All these look way better and have unit transformations.
Some Gems
Some apps have no good replacement
Simple Gallery
Also in my opinion just the best. The Amaze Videoplayer and tools are great though.
Simple Contacts SE
That is the better version with some enhanced features.
Simple Calendar
I just got way better results than using Etar. The Widget is great too.
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Etar is my go to calendar app as well, pair with the ICSx5 and I just works.
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Man, Simple Gallery is so good. We really always lack a good FOSS Gallery app.
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I felt the same way. Based on this alternatives suggestions post, I installed Aves and it looks quite promising.
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The interface looks nice but I'm not too keen on the network and location permissions. I really liked Simple Gallery for just a "show my folders" view.
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Man, I just reinstalled this suite :/
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Lucky you - you have the latest and greatest of these specific apps. Now, depending on how you installed them, go ahead and disable any automatic updating.
Then, just keep an eye on the forked versions in Github, which were created by another dev who worked very closely on the Simple Mobile Tools.
Eventually there'll be new releases that you can install via Obtainium or F-droid. All the main SMT apps had settings export/import capability, so I imagine you'll be able to bring your settings across to the forked versions too.
Bit of short term pain to change over, but not all is lost.
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This is particularly bad because there are really no reliable open-source SMS apps anymore.
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What about QKSMS?
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Updated version:
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I love it. Used it for years. But it really hasn't worked properly for the past maybe three years now. Read some of the reviews on Google Play. The F-Droid version misbehaves the same way. I've considered forking and working on it myself, but I don't know enough.
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https://github.com/octoshrimpy/quik
Updated fork
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Ah, bollocks.
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Well.. Time to change the calendar app
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27 comments
Looks like a long term contributor is forking the projects
https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issues/241#issuecomment-1837464578
The new organization is at https://github.com/FossifyX. For now all the apps have updates disabled, i'm quite open to alternatives for all EXCEPT Gallery, so i hope the fork goes well, at least from the discussions it looks like it's off to a decent start.
Of note, the apps on FDroid are still uncrapped so you can still take them from there.