this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Source.

Simple Mobile apps have been very popular among FOSS enthusiasts. I've personally been using the Gallery, Contacts and the Phone app since a few years now. It's a shame that it has come to this, will be on the lookout for their forks.

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[–] [email protected] 147 points 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

For posterity, but also for forks if the repos go down, I have created https://github.com/SimplerMobileTools and downloaded all the original repos, branches, and tags which will soon be uploaded there.

I have already got SM Gallery compiling, so thats a start, and will upload all the repos tomorrow when its not so late.

Note: Any former maintainer of SMT will be added on to SrMT upon request.

EDIT: All forks updated with notice of rationale and link to this discussion.

EDIT2: https://github.com/FossifyOrg is a soft fork created by one of the current maintainers. I will keep the hard fork up just in case.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

Not all heroes wear capes. Thank you for your service. A hero among thieves. The hero we didn't know we needed and didn't deserve. Insert other hero quips.

Na but thanks. What a legend.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Now you need to change the names and make these new names famous, since that's the thing that the company has really bought. The brand.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Not my intent. I'll do this, but don't have the time to fully maintain or distribute. Maybe I'll organize releases for Obtainium, where FOSS elites will grab them, but I'm not in it to "promote", just to "save".

Hopefully someone with more motivation comes along and does what you are saying, though.

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[–] AbeFroman 109 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Terrible news. These apps are really great. Reminds me of what happened to Quick Pick and ES file explorer and u could also add Nova Launcher. More apps assigned to the graveyard. Hopefully they get forked quickly and updated when needed.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Is there something in the making with Nova Launcher? I love it and didn't hear any bad news

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

ES File Explorer, those were the peak days of the XDA rom and root scene

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Wtf. I paid for the apps to avoid exactly this....

Too many people think the "free" in free software means "without monetary cost". Development costs money. If nobody pays, it gets sold

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Same here. Donated not only to cover my installs, but also for everyone I recommended it to. I hope the f-droid version wont be affected, otherwise I have to uninstall the upcomming bloat- and spyware ridden versions manually from a bunch of devices smh.

I mean I am fine with apps not being maintained and eventually break, but selling out and breaching trust like this is exactly how regular companies would treat me and why I chose FOSS in the first place.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, you paid and still got sold.

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[–] Snapz 89 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Incoming, "We don't plan to change anything you love about these apps!"

Narrator: "They were planning to change EVERYTHING you love about these apps."

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

They will do what every other buy-happy tech company does and strip all the charm from those apps and turn them into the same horrible, corporate, enshitified apps that they were originally supposed to be an alternative to.

[–] Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug 52 points 1 year ago

The death of Quik Pic was when it was sold

I swapped the Simple after that, so this blows fucking ass.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Looks like one of the maintainers/contributors has already setup a fork!

https://github.com/FossifyX

[–] fne8w2ah 10 points 1 year ago

Thank fuck.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (10 children)

All the code is GPLv3 so it will remain FOSS. There's no need to immediately switch to other apps. You can optionally fork then build the apps for yourself.

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[–] lazycouchpotato 33 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Ugh.

I migrated to Simple Gallery after QuickPic was similarly sold to a sketchy buyer. Been using it for so many years, supported the dev(s) by purchasing some of the apps and the "Thank You" app they have.

Time to look for yet another gallery app.

We can't have this happening every time. There needs to be a better way to support and sustain such apps.

[–] gornius 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I mean, GPL guarantees code remains open and free. If they release an app based on the source code licensed under GPL, they have to give a source code along with essential build instructions to anyone who is using it, and then you can do anything with that code, including sharing, compiling, and distributing that app, provided it's under GPL license.

Edit: I see it's licensed under GPL 3.0, so no worries.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Why? I hate this another loss for us. This year is pain in ass for me.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

Well, that sucks.

Guess I'll just stop updating and keep an eye out for forks that are maintained.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thankfully I only have them via Obtainium. Flip the "track only" option to on and wait and see. Like someone else said, I'm hopeful there'll be forks for these soon enough. I'm off to fork the repos for myself anyway, just in case.

Edit: for those that are self-hosting some form of git, is would be great if more people did this, for archival purposes. I've simply left the public fork of all 19 repos in my Github account, but have mirrored those to my private Forgejo instance.

At any point I can sync the GH forks then mirror those down to my local instance. Until the original repos get dismantled, of course.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn it. There was a big extension that did this too. The first thing the guys did? implement a credentials stealer.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Time to disable auto update for these apps in the stores

[–] grue 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is why you should always install the F-Droid version whenever possible. They won't update just because upstream did without vetting it first.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is terrible news! I am going to struggle to find a replacement for the gallery app.

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[–] FlavoredButtHair 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Damn I actually paid for a few of these apps. What does this mean for purchase on Android?

[–] sfgifz 14 points 1 year ago

If you paid for it on Play Store and the app gets pulled from there, you won't be able to download it again.

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[–] pelya 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] woelkchen 12 points 1 year ago

Better switch to the F-Droid version.

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[–] Trincapinones 15 points 1 year ago

I paid for the apps to avois this...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Big F, they had some good apps.

[–] Sanyanov 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn, I recently donated to them, and this is how it turned out.

Terrible to see.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

For anyone looking for an alternative to Gallery, Gallery by Iacoblonut looks better, and you can use Amaze to edit images.

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[–] CrayonRosary 12 points 1 year ago

Noooooo! I love their gallery app. Guess it's time to turn off auto-update on it.

Thank you for sharing this!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Damn, i will really miss the Gallery app

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Recently on their blog --> Aug 29, 2023

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Finally, Kissinger is dead — but for the karmic balance, even SMT gets enshittified.

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