Yt-dl - > yt-dlp
Simplemobiletools --> Fossify is pretty epic
Do the Fossify versions already have new features? I’ll still using Simple Mobile Tools from F-Droid, without ads, and am asking if it makes sense to download Fossify apps already
The unmaintained repo has a link in the readme pointing to the best fork
This is the problem, making the fork known to the userbase of the original software. When the Atom text editor was killed by Microsoft we decided to fork it as Pulsar but it was an uphill struggle to really get the word out. We got a massive boost when the youtuber Distrotube featured us in an episode and again with an itsfoss article but we still routinely find people who have been using Atom without knowing we even exist.
You found some more by commenting about it now.
But if the fork is on GitHub there are some ways to search for the most maintained forks, albeit not with the GitHub tools which is unfortunate
There’s always the fork network graph, but it’s not exactly easy to spot which forks are good, just the ones with the most recent commits
What tools would you recommend to fund good forks. I’ve had a Firefox extension or two but they’ve either creased working or weren’t fantastic to begin with. Currently just using the network graph, limitations and all.
Keep in mind that software doesn’t have an expiry date. If a piece of software is unmaintained and doesn’t have an active fork but it still fulfills your use case and doesn’t have any major issues, there’s no need to replace it. Some of the software I use hasn’t seen any updates in five years but I still use it because it still works.
Edit: As an example, a lot of people still use WinDirStat even though the latest release 1.1.2 is now 17 years old.
I’d say that problems mostly come from the need to update dependencies in case of vulnerabilities being discovered. But not every software needs elevated privileges or can become a vector of attack, I guess
Desktop - Linux - Yes, likely. If not, here’s a flatpak
Desktop - Windows - Maybe it still runs in a compatibility mode?
Desktop - iMac - Here’s an emulator, good luck.
Mobile - PostMarketOS - Yes, likely. If not, here’s a flatpak
Mobile - Android - Maybe? Try it and see if you get permission denial
Mobile - iPhone - Fuck you, no.
Windows is pretty good with backwards compatibility, probably the best out of anything. I can run Visual Basic apps I wrote in the early 2000s on Windows 11 and they still run fine. Some old 32-bit games work fine too. You can even run some 16-bit Windows 3.0 apps on 32-bit Windows 10 if you manually install NTVDM through the Windows features (it was never ported to 64-bit though)
Linux is okay for backcompat but I’m not sure an app I compiled 20 years ago would still run today.
WinDirStat works but is super slow though. WizTree is a much better modern equivalent.
I do like Wiztree, but WinDirStat is still pretty common to see. The 2005 version of WinDirStat still gets around 60,000 downloads per week according to the Sourceforge stats. https://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/files/windirstat/1.1.2 installer re-release (more languages!)/stats/timeline
I was just using it as an example of old software that people still use :)
I use windirstat almost monthly and have never heard of WizTree. Keeping this in mind for next time I use it.
Though at this point, maybe I should just commit honestly
It may be a game, but…
Pixel Dungeon -> Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Sorry, that’s now how I meant my original post - I just thought that I really like SPD already and was interested in what PD makes better/ what features SPD missed. I in no way wanted to say that PD was bad, just was excited to know what PD made better :)
