I’ve recently decided to switch out my Playstore apps for Open Source Apps as they’re usually Ad Free and much less bloated. Can we use this thread to help people find open source android apps?
I’ll start
K-9 mail, a great email alternative that let’s you have multiple users logged in
Red Moon - A customisable night light app which lets you adjust the colour and settings including Colour, opacity and Darkness
Swift Notes - Note taking app
I don’t really use Android much now that I daily drive a Linux phone, but when I do these are my go-to apps:
F-Droid: FOSS app repository/“store” where I get most of my FOSS apps.
Aurora Store: FOSS app that interfaces with Play Store, allows downloads without account or tracking
NewPipe: FOSS YouTube alternative with the ability to download videos
Fennec: Fork of Firefox in F-Droid
VLC: Media player that plays almost anything
Hacker’s Keyboard: My long-standing favorite on-screen keyboard of any platform
Terminal Emulator: Before I got into Linux phone, for running Linux distro chroots
What Linux phone and os are you running and how is your experience? I have a pinephone convergence edition, and I jump back in every few months to see how things are progressing, but i’ve not seen anything nearly ready for daily use for my needs.
I’ve used several. First, PinePhone Convergence Edition (Manjaro CE) running Manjaro, Arch, Mobian, and postmarketOS. It’s too slow for my needs and for the first year or so it was pretty unstable as well. I had it for over a year before attempting to daily drive it. Soon after I started, the PinePhone Pro came out and I managed to get a PinePhone Pro Developer Edition. That’s what I’m daily driving now, after settling on postmarketOS after using Arch for a while. I also used a OnePlus 6T with postmarketOS for 6 months or so but got tired of the modem issues, so I’m back to the PinePhone Pro. The biggest issue with the Pro is battery life, but the keyboard case makes it a lot more tolerable. It seems call audio issues have been mostly taken care of and I can take calls fairly reliably on the Pro now. Texts work. The modem occasionally drops out but I can reset it by restarting the eg25-manager service (using the open firmware).
As for apps, I never liked using apps on Android anyways. I try to use the web version of everything I can to avoid having to install apps that just take up space. I can do pretty much everything I need on a browser so I don’t have Waydroid. Probably the biggest thing I’m missing is a good GPS/maps app. One thing I did use app for was ChargePoint for EV charging stations, but I was able to get a standalone card for that. My banks have good online websites. I can use SMS or phone calls for 2FA.
On the plus side, I can use actual applications I use on my PC, especially with the keyboard case as a mini-laptop. I have some 3D printing tools, Visual Studio Code, Qt Creator, and a whole bunch of command line tools available that I just would not have access to on an Android phone. I have proper tunneling VPN without having to root or do any stupid hacks so that I can connect to my home network from anywhere. Overall, I’m happy with this setup. I always wished smartphones would’ve just adapted desktop OSes for pocket use rather than becoming the limited toys they did and Linux Phone finally is achieving what I always wanted.
How’s your experience with a Linux phone? Any major issues or minor annoyances? Do you use waydroid for any Android apps? I’m considering switching but I’m not sure yet.
I just replied to the other comment.