15 years ago this month, @CiaranG started “an experiment in automated building from source”. And so F-Droid began to automate building all our apps from source. Before this, apps were either built manually or the binary files were fetched from trusted developers like Mozilla. Automating the build process was a...

This Week in F-Droid TWIF curated on Thursday, 20 Nov 2025, Week 47 Community News MBCompass was updated to 1.1.11 after we missed three versions. What’s new? Many new UI improvements and fixes. @CodeDoctor brings us a point one: Butterfly was updated to 2.4.1 with the biggest set of bug...

This Week in F-Droid TWIF curated on Thursday, 13 Nov 2025, Week 46 F-Droid core Without much fanfare, remember the old CPU issues we had? Well… for the last 3 or 4 cycles we have been building apps on our new modern hardware. So stay tuned for more info, more...

This Week in F-Droid TWIF curated on Thursday, 06 Nov 2025, Week 45 Community News Jami was updated to 20251031-01. The devs are busy at work but also at posting interesting blogs. “Manifesto 2025: the freedom to communicate belongs to all of us” talks about how humanity has more tools...

This Week in F-Droid TWIF curated on Thursday, 30 Oct 2025, Week 44 Community News Fossify Messages update 1.5.0 from last week has been having some crashing issues with heavy conversations, tracked by the developer here. If you’ve encountered them, you are advised to uninstall, install older version 1.4.0 and...

我們最近發表了一篇部落格帖文，就新的 Google 開發者計劃表明我們的反應，以及其如何影響您的自由，以如您所欲的方法使用您所擁有的裝置。該帖文集結了不少來自社群與媒體，以至不同公民社會小組與監管機構的迴響與關注。 藉此帖文，我希望釐清並拓展一些觀點，同時反駁一些我們耳聞目睹的相反言論。 Google 論「側載並非遠去」言談清晰、扼要，而失實 我們的帖文發佈後不久，Google 放送了一輯 Android 開發者圓桌系列，當中他們毫不含糊地直言「側載不到哪兒去」。他們隨後追加一則部落格帖文： 這是否意味側載在 Android 上遠去？絕對不是。側載在 Android 而言是基礎，而且並非遠去。 此陳述並不真確。開發者驗證令的效用乃終結個人得以選擇在其擁有的裝置上執行甚麼軟體的能力。 值得一提，「側載」是個賦造詞。在您的電腦上放置軟體，直接叫做「安裝」，不論該電腦是在您的口袋裡，還是在您的桌面上。或許可以更精確的說「 直接 安裝」，倘需要區分以此老派方法取得軟體，還是經由從中尋租獲利的仲介市集，比如 Google Play 商店或 Apple App Store。 無論如何，鑄造「側載」此一術語，若有所指此過程有其陰森險惡之處，儼如使用者抄旁門左道，規避設計上庇佑您一路平安大吉的保護機制。然而若我們不得不接受「側載」此一術語已登堂入室，成為約定俗成的慣用語，那至少我們應當為其使用一個一致的定義。《維基百科》的概述定義乃： 從並非供應商核准的網上來源傳輸應用程式 按此定義，Google 陳述「側載並非遠去」簡明是 不實 。供應商⸺就 Android 認證裝置而言即 Google⸺將實際上乃在核准該來源。接入方即應用程式開發者必須與 Google 註冊、繳付費用、提供官方身份證、同意不容商議 (又不時變更) 的條款及細則、列舉所有其目前與未來的應用程式識別碼、上載其私密簽署金鑰的證據，然後翹首期盼、屏息以待 Google 的核准。 這對您的權利意味甚麼 汝，曰消費者，當初購買您的 Android 裝置，乃相信 Google 之承諾其為開放的運算平臺，且您可在其上執行任何任您選擇的軟體。然而，明年開始，他們將會不徵求同意下推送一則更新至您的作業系統，不可撤銷地封鎖此權利，任由您聽任其判斷您獲批准信任甚麼軟體。 汝，曰創作者，不再能夠開發某一應用程式並直接與您的親朋好友和社群分享，除非先徵得 Google 的核准。Android 的承諾⸺亦是其一直用來標榜與...

This Week in F-Droid TWIF curated on Friday, 24 Oct 2025, Week 43 F-Droid core Our website runs on a pretty standard software stack, all from Debian as expected. Yet we are not rewriting it every 7 months in a new shiny framework, but we aim for simplicity, maintainability and...

Introduction In our previous article, we explored how Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects like F-Droid handle legal requests for user or developer data. In this post, we’re shifting focus to a broader andrapidly growing legal challenge: platform responsibility under laws like the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA), the...