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42

Better off without Android apps

asked 2018-12-31 12:23:43 +0200

JSEHV gravatar image

updated 2018-12-31 12:29:19 +0200

One of the big reasons we thank all our native developers for all the effort they've put in developing beautiful and honest apps this year and pursue to continue doing that into the next year:

https://hackercombat.com/facebook-collects-data-of-non-users-via-android-apps/

Keep us off the Android apps, guys and gals!

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Nice question :) Happy new year from VN

lbee ( 2018-12-31 14:44:38 +0200 )edit
5

Word! Sailfish all the way. Thanks to all our developers, you guys are appreciated

DameCENO ( 2018-12-31 15:06:29 +0200 )edit
2

I think we have a same thread in our ecosystem also. We should require developer practices to publish up to date sources and use e.g. Mer OBS to share packages. We could also make some quality measure for the app developers to fulfill.

Rikujolla ( 2018-12-31 16:49:08 +0200 )edit

The Privacy International report describes how apps send data to FB which can be linked to a user using the 'Google Advertising ID', which is passed to the app by Android.

Does anybody know what Google Advertising ID Alien passes to an app? A blank or all-zero ID might cause an app to fail. Does it generate a unique ID which could be used to track a users?

DaveRo ( 2018-12-31 19:32:36 +0200 )edit

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24

answered 2019-01-04 15:17:33 +0200

makarch gravatar image

updated 2019-01-04 15:28:59 +0200

Maybe there would be more native apps if the developers get paid for their hard and honest work.

I am not an developer, but I gladly would pay for the apps I need.

And lets be honest, one of the most crucial points of SFOS is the lack of native apps. Therefore please establish a payment system. It will increase quantity and quality of apps.

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2

Totally agree with you on that, and remain baffled at Jolla's defiance at integrating this basic function, can someone please clarify that issue for me

DameCENO ( 2019-01-04 15:31:25 +0200 )edit
1

If the community is not strong enough, institutionalization will only succeed in creating another Google / Apple -type monster, with all of the same fluff and exploitation, (which might as well be, without a strong community). It's all about priority - I don't mind lagging a bit behind the times to support something good. If you need the big boys to be able to use your phone for day-to-day life, just have 2 phones...

Levone1 ( 2019-01-04 17:14:58 +0200 )edit
1

The developer of Zasterbanker and Piepmatz has developed/implemented a way to get payed apps on SFOS. Of course this is not a Jolla solution and many might not like to use it but one exists nevertheless.

ApB ( 2019-01-04 17:18:53 +0200 )edit
1

I dont know if it makes sense that everyone has to look for their own way how to get paid.

It could end up that people abuse it as well.

makarch ( 2019-01-04 18:33:16 +0200 )edit
9

answered 2018-12-31 15:14:36 +0200

NuklearFart gravatar image

an other reason: since i disabled droid support all day long i have almost 80% longer battery usage until i need to charge. nice!

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Maybe a dumb question- where/how can i do that? I use android only twice a day for my transit app, so i would use a timed "shutdown" for that also if available and with battery-saving effect

kaktux ( 2018-12-31 15:52:39 +0200 )edit

settings - android support (one of the last items listed).

NuklearFart ( 2018-12-31 16:20:31 +0200 )edit
3
3

You can only be better off without android apps when there's actually a store with some decent apps to choose from, at the moment it's barren and piss poor, it's been 5 years since I bought a J1 and nothing's changed. If there's no rapid advances this will all go to shit, OS's are starting to pop up, some of them are actually 'open' and they seem to be moving faster that SFOS, for me, this year is the last chance saloon for sailfish before i give it up as another 'could have been' .

davekelly ( 2019-01-01 00:24:58 +0200 )edit
1

it depends heavyly on what you need. eg on my nokia n8, i used it 4.5 years, the only additional thing i installed was opera. nothing else needed since all was onboard. player, notes, mail, radio. the so called apps like app of my mail provider? lol! or eg the bahn? no need since i use web page. should be clear that server based solutions rule all and then there is just a hand full of missing things, eg nowadays i use working hours tracker because i dont want to add minutes and hours but i could do excel (or replacement) table to do so. the native jolla apps need some love, eg browser, mail, calender. i'm definitively better without droid bulk. you can choose your way.

NuklearFart ( 2019-01-01 15:19:54 +0200 )edit
9

answered 2019-01-05 12:52:46 +0200

Federico gravatar image

Personally, I think that Sailfish still needs Android apps badly. What we need to avoid privacy issues like the one you mention is better support for customizing and auditing permissions. You can remove permissions from Android apps, natively, in Android, but not on Sailfish, as far as I understand.

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3

Exactly! The problem of apps reporting data is not a problem of Android as an OS. Basically Android has better mechanisms to grant app permissions than SFOS! Mainstream apps for SFOS simply do not exist and the tiny user base makes SFOS uninteresting to harvest data. Android compatibility is crucial for SFOS to succeed beyond being a nerd OS and to survive. To sandbox all Android apps and enable the user to grant app permissions individually or grant permissions to a set of dummy data to satisfy app requests would the right way forward for SFOS!

Stefanix ( 2019-01-05 15:26:31 +0200 )edit
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Asked: 2018-12-31 12:23:43 +0200

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Last updated: Jan 05 '19