fdroid app store

[David Sterry]

I believe Ciaran has done a great job building f-droid and we interested 
users and developers should give him some time to respond and let him 
know we each can help either on or off-list.

Personally, I've submitted some very simple php updates to help make the 
repo easier to browse on the web. I'm comfortable doing pretty much 
anything from web development in php/mysql, scripting in perl, to GIMP 
and Inkscape. I've even modded and released an app for android so you 
could say I'm a jack of all trades/master of none.

As for F-droid, I would like to share what I've learned about the 
structure of the project so far. After looking at the client and server 
code ( http://gitorious.org/f-droid ) for the past couple weeks, I can 
see there are some tasks that don't scale well and for which the process 
may need to be improved.

For example, adding apps to the repo increases the future workload of 
keeping them all updated. There is no script in the fdroidserver project 
that automatically downloads new versions of the apk so at this point it 
looks like the developer has to notify f-droid to download the update or 
f-droid has to poll a long list of urls.

There's also a significant list of f-droid issues is at 
http://f-droid.org/repository/issues/ which looks pretty difficult for 
one person to handle during volunteer time.

Finally, I think this project and the function it provides is extremely 
important to the future of free software. Watching family members over 
the holiday, it's clear that mobile devices are where people are 
heading. It is during this early stage that people's preferred 
applications will be selected and it is my hope that F-droid and 
Replicant will help those defaults be free as in freedom.

Thanks,

David Sterry (@weex on identi.ca)

On 12/26/2010 05:02 PM, Mitchell Reese wrote:
> Hmmm, I've been finding the same thing. I also submitted a mapping app, osmand, and it's yet to go up. I'd be more than happy to help with the project, and managing submissions, but as of yet have only heard back very brief and sketchy responses fron the person in charge... I am also assuming this is from lack of time, which is understandable. I would also appreciate hearing this, and when the project might move forward again.
>
> I had come up with the same idea independently, but would much prefer working with an existing project than creating my own. In the end however it comes down to admin. If I can't find a more active way of being involved with this, I may have to set up my own project. M