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Pierre-Yves Lapersonne

@ pylapp @programming.dev

Posts
72
Comments
40
Joined
2 yr. ago

Software crafter and digital punker keen on open source, iOS and Android apps. Interested in software ecodesign, privacy and accessibility too. pylapersonne.info

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  • If you are worried about your privacy, yes, you must get rid of Google Play Services. However a majors part of your apps may be broken as too much rely on this services and only in those services.

    If you want apps to based on this layer of Google mess, have a look on some open spruce alternatives of your favorite apps. Maybe some of them won’t embed Google Play Services. But keep in mind you may lose some features like notifications from Google devices or fine tunes location.

    You can have a look on microG or Open GApps for alternatives. However you may need to hack your device to flash them.

    What you can do, for example:

    • check if you can flash alternatives (possible to root and before unlock the boot loader)
    • maybe check if you can flash another ROM ; projects list the compatible devices. Have a look on LineageOS, GrapheneOS or also /e/OS

  • What Keepass client do you use?

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  • Yep, it seems it is, but it can manage KDBX files. Just wanted to share 😄

    Edit: sorry, didn’t see this thread is in Android community, my comment is not relevant for this platform.

  • What Keepass client do you use?

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  • Is Signal safe and still private on an IPhone?

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  • It is always the same issues in fact. You should consider your threat model before all. Then, consider the Signal app, then your iPhone supposed to be updated, trusted, with ADP enabled, biometric lock with erasure after 10 failures, etc. Then consider your ISP, then your country. Etc, etc. You should also compare the contexts. Is an iPhone “better” than a low or middle ranges Android-powered smartphones? For sure, yes. Is it better than high-range expansive smartphones with Android ? Or Pixel ones? Not that sure. And compared to GrapheneOS or /e/? Pretty sure not that much. You can also compare messaging solutions. Is Signal better than WhatApp? Of course yes. But what about XMPP and Matrix for example?

    And what are your use cases? Remember your threat model. If you are an activist, a journalist or a whistleblower your needs may be different than a “commons citizen worried about its privacy.

    In few words, the only pain point I see is the fact than iOS is proprietary and runs non libre source code and Apple devices than APN. But Android devices are not so much different. It does not mean the solution is not private or efficient, if we succeed in defining a definition of “private or efficient”.

    In a nutshell, it could be considered as good. But not perfect.

  • Apple Removes iCloud E2EE in UK: What You Need to Know

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  • Any ideas for E2E encrypted storage alternatives?

  • Alternative open source frontend for Instagram?

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  • Enshitification made third-party apps disappeared. Prefer true open source project instead like Pixelfed for example.

  • Looking for a FOSS maps app. (iOS)

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  • Best Alternatives to GitHub?

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  • Whatever the solution behind is, if you have the resources, move to something self-hosted. Open core or not, if that topic matters to you, you might need something you can own and control. BTW, have a look on Forgejo, Codeberg and Gitea: these are the solutions I see when people look for something FLOSS, not open core, and maybe self-hostable.

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  • It depends of the project in fact. You should reach the community and maintainers by joining them in their Discord / Slack / Matrix / whatever. They may be able to help you.

    You can create first an issue, asking for improvements and create a discussion airy the maintainers so as to know which languages are not managed yet and if they are interested in new support. Explains also why you can bring good translations (e.g. native speaker, teacher, etc). It sill help to bring confidence.

    Then create a pull / merge request with the updated files. For example, strings.xml ob Android, .strings in iOS, etc. But beware, localisation is not only a matter of translations. You may have also to support new languages and formats for figures, currencies, or dates for example.

    Do not use translations services. Project maintainers are able to use them, and in plenty of cases the translations are not good at all or loose details.

  • Alternative to Discord ?

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  • I would have said in fact Matrix or XMPP-based solutions but it seems you already have spotted them. Maybe Mattermost?

  • Bluesky

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  • It seems yet Bluesky has an Android app according to their GitHub repository (https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app). However indeed nothing mentioned about F-Droid ; maybe some alternative Mastodon clients can also deal with Bluesky?

  • What GitHub alternative do you use?

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  • GitLab because for CI/CD is it far, far much user friendly and comfortable to use with GitLab CI compared to GitHub Actions and flows.

    In addition I can integrate templates for CI/CD pipelines already defined with the To Be Continuous project (which is open source).

    https://to-be-continuous.gitlab.io/doc/

  • Question about donating to open source

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  • Very interesting topic in fact, I am not sure a unique and perfect solution exists.

    In fact, it depends to how much you earn, how matter does for you the project, how big it is, etc. It is a question of feelings after all.

    For example you may want to donate $20 one time to a useful tool you use, but for an app you enjoy using which match your own values you may want to send each year $50. But for some people it is complicated to give money, they need to satisfy their own needs before and people don’t have all the same incomes.

    FMPOV, if the project is “just a tool” it can be a $20 one shot. If I use the software daily, it can be $50 per year. Maybe more if I feel it will help.

    About the transaction medium, it depends. Projects can use Liberapay, others PayPal or Open Collective, or also in-app purchases. I don’t use cryptocurrencies because of the transactions fees.

    Hope it helps!

  • How big is your desk?

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  • That is the reason why some developers are “full stack”. All computers are stacked 🤪

  • (Cat) Smartphone OS Replacement options

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  • What to do when a giant company refuses to honor a GPL claim?

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  • Yeah, reach the FSF like explained in previous comments. Or maybe contact some attorney if it matters because you may face expensive litigations… Big companies are not friendly. Or maybe contact the SFC (https://sfconservancy.org/).

  • Blogger Alternative for the Fediverse

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  • Interesting. Thank you for sharing, didn’t know openhub!

  • Blogger Alternative for the Fediverse

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  • Why did you say Write Freely seems to be dead? According to their GitHub organisation repositories, the backend has a release tagged 4 months ago and the iOS app 3 months ago.

  • Help me choose my mobile browser

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  • Why not using Firefox, Firefox Focus or Brave?