Remote

Torsten Grote

@grote@chaos.social

mastodon 4.6.9

#FreeSoftware activist interested in topics of technology-enabled social and political change.

1631 Followers

147 Following

33 Posts

Joined December 27, 2018

Email + XMPP:

t at grobox dot de

Blog:

https://blog.grobox.de/

Gitlab:

https://gitlab.com/grote

pronouns:

he/him

Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 1w ago

Boosted by @trending@homestead.social

After lots of hard work, F-Droid 2.0 was finally published 🎉 🥳 ⛓️‍💥 🎈 https://f-droid.org/2026/09/24/f-droid-2.0-a-new-chapter-for-android-freedom.html This is a major update, so many things have changed. Good to get familiar with the new app and revise your settings. Soon, everybody will receive the update.

F-Droid 2.0: A New Chapter for Android Freedom | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

F-Droid 2.0: A New Chapter for Android Freedom | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

After more than a year of hard work, we are thrilled to announce the launch of F-Droid 2.0, a complete redesign of the official F-Droid app and the largest a...

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Google has news on what you will need to do for still being able to sideload apps:

* enable developer options
* confirm that you are not tricked
* restart phone and re-authenticate
* wait one day
* confirm with biometrics that you know what you are doing
* decide if you only want unrestricted installs for 1 week or forever
* confirm that you accept the risks
* enjoy the few apps that still have developers motivated to develop for a user-base willing to put up with this

https://goo.gle/advance-flow

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Big news: F-Droid 2.0 is now also available as an alpha for users of regular #fdroid. You can opt-in to receiving those updates:

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 7mo ago

The @torproject@mastodon.social VPN app for Android is now available in @fdroidorg@floss.social and therefore guaranteed to be fully Free Software, rebuilt from source.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

They even have a video up where they try to make this all sound nice and positive:

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@tedmielczarek My weird fictional scenario is normal people using @fdroidorg to get their apps. They have apps that are downloaded millions of times per week. A hobbyist exception to distribute one app to 20 people who need to first opt-in doesn't cut it for those. Also your link goes to Google Play testing, so you may not have understood the issue.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 4mo ago

Someone created a tool to inspect, extract and verify Seedvault backups on your desktop: https://github.com/Baltram/seednaut#seednaut

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@TimWardCam That's not my main concern, but I think there's exceptions for device management solutions. Also they could just register with Google if needed.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@y20k@chaos.social The big issue still is that users can't use F-Droid itself (and most other apps there) without going through the advanced 24h flow. Independent app distribution will become a lot more fringe than it already is, even if your own app is registered. @muntashir@infosec.exchange

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

The CI of @fdroidorg@floss.social trolled me with a 6/7 joke I inflicted upon myself: https://fdroid.gitlab.io/-/fdroidclient/-/jobs/13777215049/artifacts/app/build/reports/screenshotTest/preview/debug/basicDefault/org.fdroid.ui.AboutTestKt.html?title=Failed%20tests#AboutTest

fdroid.gitlab.io

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 40mo ago

Google made it official that important apps like Messaging and Dialer are no longer maintained in the Android Open Source project. A free Android on its own is pretty much useless now.

https://android-review.googlesource.com/c/platform/packages/apps/Messaging/+/2614297
https://android-review.googlesource.com/c/platform/packages/apps/Dialer/+/2613992

android-review.googlesource.com

Gerrit Code Review

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 5mo ago

@daniel@gultsch.social Da kann ich eins drauf legen: XMPP Interview mit mir von 2012 https://ondemand-mp3.dradio.de/file/dradio/2012/03/26/drw_201203261034_autark_chatten_gespraech_mit_thor_10eb6223.mp3

ondemand-mp3.dradio.de

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

I wonder how many perfectly good laptops are thrown away each year, just because they are full of dust and dirt.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Lioh It sure felt good, but is doom scrolling F-Droid maybe also an addictive anti-pattern that gave you endorphins when suddenly something new popped up? Maybe we need to build more chilled tech that just does its job. You can still force-update individual repos, if you really need to.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Lioh I'd say use the new app for a week and then let me know how much you are really missing it.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@dan Yes, maybe @torproject can confirm, but AFAIK this is official. Source repo in official Gitlab instance: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn

gitlab.torproject.org

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Lioh yes, it does more reliable auto-updates now: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroidclient/-/work_items/3171

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@aproposnix You said browsing categories. You can do it there. Search isn't meant to hide stuff. That just confuses people when they don't find something. @fdroidorg

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 39mo ago

Sadly, @fdroidorg@floss.social is now blocked in China: @ooni@mastodon.social

mastodon.social

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 40mo ago

Replying to

@rml Let you send SMS or make/receive phone calls.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 25mo ago

Replying to

@raumzeit@podcasts.social Ist es denn völlig undenkbar vom europäischen Fokus und der dt. Sprache etwas abzurücken und etwas internationaler zu werden? In den USA gäbe es viele Themen und viele andere Nationen streben auch in den Weltraum.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 10mo ago

Replying to

@accrescent It is great that you are not affected. Does this mean you are completely fine with Google requiring developer verification for app installs?

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 39mo ago

Wow Twitter is so broken:

"You have reached the limit for seeing posts today. Subscribe to see more posts every day."

and I just had an old Tweetdeck tab open without actually "seeing" posts.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@nullfame @fdroidorg do you really think we would hide something as essential as updates from the new version? Updates for your apps will be shown in "My Apps" if available.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@duy The new strings should be in weblate since yesterday. Can you let me know if they are not?

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@aproposnix Do you have examples, screenshots? The apps are showing up where? @fdroidorg

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@aproposnix Try changing the filter settings in those categories, if you don't want to see incompatible apps there. @fdroidorg

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@silmathoron If you tap the apps that have issues, there are no further explanations on the screen showing the app? Can you post some screenshots?

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@silmathoron I am happy the new @fdroidorg app could make you aware of this and the lacking updates.

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@gal1le0@rz-social.de It sounds like one of your repos has this app, but with a different signature. Hence the warning. What repo does include this app? @fdroidorg@floss.social

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Torsten Grote @grote@chaos.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@cketti@social.int21.dev Does @davx5app@fosstodon.org still have old Java code laying around?

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