The mastodon thread has suggested replacements.
Update:
- discussion on GitHub provided by @InstallGentoo@lemmy.zip
- Simple Mobile Tools has a new name: Fossify, an open-source fork
- Simple Mobile Tools alternatives? on Lemmy
Is there an announcement post or something? Where’s the link to the info on the purchase?
ETA: In addition to the links below, I have also found the apps have all been forked under a new github organisation: https://github.com/FossifyX Edit: it seems to have been renamed: https://github.com/FossifyOrg
This sucks… I hope people forked the repos before they switched ownership and will maintain the apps.
They have! github.com/FossifyX
Edit: the name of the repo changed, now it’s https://github.com/FossifyOrg
Yeah dang what happened Edit: this is a better link: https://github.com/FossifyOrg
Apologies if this is a stupid question, but are there APKs to download from GitHub? I can see lots of code, but not a simple download option.
Maybe that’s not how it works, I’ve never really understood GitHub tbh.
They’re usually in the “releases” tab, but they might not be ready yet. I assume they’ll soon set it up with fdroid like before
Nope, the name just changed: https://github.com/FossifyOrg
Damn, is this a bad news?
Israel-based ZipoApps … is notorious for acquiring apps, adding advertisement and tracking, and premium options to them to increase revenue
Could anyone explain to me how it works for a company to buy an open source app? Are they just buying the name and brand recognition? Is there anything to stop original developers to use the old source code and continue developing their own fork under a different name? Couldn’t anyone else do the same? Do companies just buy the apps and pull the code from everywhere they can and make it closed source? Couldn’t the company have just modified the freely available code without paying the original devs anything?
They get the play store account that published the apps, likely also some support from the original developer for a while.
The original play store account has all the downloads and reputation associated with the project. It also has the revenue from adds and new purchases. The developer can modify the apps and send these out as updates. This could include things like more ads and tracking to generate additional revenue.
