- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
- technology@lemmy.world
Accrescent, for those who don’t know, is an alternative android app store. They aim to compete directly with the play store, so unlike F-Droid they include both FOSS and proprietary apps. They are also very security focused. They’re still small but I find their approach interesting and their ambition worth supporting.
Unfortunately, as with many FOSS projects, funding is a challenge. If you believe they are worth supporting, please read the linked blog post.
Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with the project in any way, just a fan trying to raise awareness.
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After 4 years and 42k users, they have a total of just 32 apps?
Yes. I assume that’s partly what this is about.
To date the majority of the coding has been done by one person after work. Their infrastructure was also too slow.
They released a progress update and roadmap a few days ago. They’ve already implemented some infrastructure upgrades and are prioritising back-end updates. Presumably this will make the store more attractive for app developers.
The funding push is to make it possible to have a developer working on the project fulltime.
Edit: a word
2nd edit to add: I found this thread from about a year ago, when they only had 10 apps. Relevant quotes from the developer:
Developer of Accrescent here. Yes, there are only a handful of apps available right now. The reason for this is that the recent focus hasn’t been directed on getting more apps in the store, but instead on internal changes to allow Accrescent to include more features and scale to more users. It will be able to include more apps once more of those changes are implemented.
Yes, we may take on some additional apps over time. This depends on how much the project can handle maintenance-wise and how willing those app developers are to deal with the early and changing nature of Accrescent. We’re not directly reaching out to any developers at this time, however.
So apparently it’s a deliberate choice.
Man it’s so sad. I wish I had more money to donate to people. Projects I like like Lemmy, Signal, Grapheneos, projects like Accrescent, and with the Corporation of Public Broadcasting going under eliminating funds for PBS and countless Radio channels.
deleted by creator
Fdroid probably needs funding, too. And it’s not a neverheard.
Here is a link to F-Droid’s Open Collective page. If this is accurate, they seem to be doing OK for funding right now. I’m sure they’d appreciate another sponsor though, if you’re not already donating.
Awful take
Classic case of xkcd 927
They allow proprietary apps and are vulnerable to government takedown requests. No thank you.
That’s an absolutely valid choice.
It’s not however the choice that the majority of people make. Weaning them off the play store needs an alternative with proprietary apps.
I might even be okay with having proprietary apps in it if you had to manually go and enable it and got a warning about the fact that proprietary apps could be dangerous because you don’t know what they’re doing.
By default, though, it should only show FOSS
It would be really nice if they let you have third party repositories, again with a disclaimer that it could be dangerous.
That way, they would not be subject to apt takedown requests because even if they took it down, the app developer could just launch their own onion repo and host it themselves. But instead of giving the user a warning and telling them what could go wrong, they are like, no, we’re going to make the decision for you. Therefore, I have to make the decision not to use them.
Last I heard, the intention is that users will be able to filter for open-source apps if they want.
I haven’t seen anything warning against proprietary apps specifically. As a minimum, I would hope that they implement an agreement similar to the play store where the app developers are legally bound by the privacy terms in the app description (re data, advertising, etc.). This statement could maybe include an alternative wording for OS vs Proprietary apps? Definitely something to think about.
Edit to add: I can’t comment on 3rd party repositories. Too technical for me.
Which app store is invulnerable to takedown requests?
Fdroid. The government can ask that a app be removed from the main repository, and they would have to comply, but since you have the ability to add third-party repositories, the developer could just launch a Tor onion service and give some simple instructions, and people could continue using it, like nothing ever happened.
You realize they can just demand for it to be removed from the source repository?
Considering you can host your own Git repository on Tor as well. Good luck with that.
Okay so which app store delivers apps exclusively over TOR?
None of them deliver exclusively over tor. F-Droid has default tor repositories if you want to use them. And third party repositories can be tor repositories.
tiktok proves that even the google and apple app stores are vulnerable to takedown requests so this is a strange condition to stand on.
You actually just proved my point better. They are all vulnerable to takedown requests except for fdroid where third party repositories can be used.
Great project with seemingly no business plan to make it viable. I still hope it all works out. That $16k anonymous XMR donation was sure to help.
Yes, that is a weakness with many FOSS projects. Developers with great ideas lacking business acumen.
That said, I expect that they can become financially self-sustaining from selling proprietary apps if they can get enough scale. I wouldn’t mind making a small monthly donation long-term but it needs to be less than what they are currently asking.
Not enough apps to have yet another app store on my phone. If they combined the catalog if both fdroid and play store then they might be able to replace them, but years later they’ve never even gotten more than one or two apps I actually use.
Some relevant comments from the developer on another forum from about a year ago, when they only had 10 apps:
Developer of Accrescent here. Yes, there are only a handful of apps available right now. The reason for this is that the recent focus hasn’t been directed on getting more apps in the store, but instead on internal changes to allow Accrescent to include more features and scale to more users. It will be able to include more apps once more of those changes are implemented.
Yes, we may take on some additional apps over time. This depends on how much the project can handle maintenance-wise and how willing those app developers are to deal with the early and changing nature of Accrescent. We’re not directly reaching out to any developers at this time, however.
So apparently it’s been a deliberate choice so far.
My understanding is that the whole point to trying to hire a full time developer is to be able to finally scale their services.
