I had run LineageOS for some time. It works, but FDroid is missing too many apps, even opensource like Signal. I have to update apks manually every few months.
Signal team fought a long war against any forks or unauthorised builds of Signal. There are (or were) FDroid repositories with Signal compatible builds, but Moxie stated that any such build will be considered malware. Signal team was making such builds increasingly difficult to produce.
Official F-Droid repo doesn't allow proprietary dependencies on which Signal depends for some messages (push?)
Signal is open-source in the "look at it, but don't even try to tun it" way. I'd rather support a protocol that supports federation and encourages alternative clients.
Why doesn't Signal maintain an F-Droid compatible build? (if there's a dependency problem, then they should considering dropping it, release a Signal lite perhaps)
Yes it's a shame that Signal is not on F-Droid, but there's a self updating apk available[1] for side-loading which doesn't use Google Push Notifications if not available and as for why it's not there on F-Droid here's their official response[1], Which IMO makes some reasonable (against forks using their servers) and unreasonable (against normalizing side-loading) justifications.
> some reasonable (against forks using their servers) (...) justifications
How is that reasonable in a centralized client-server model? That's precisely what we find unreasonable with Twitter and others shutting down or making life hard for 3rd party clients. Why would it be more acceptable from a free-software service?
The network effect says a centralized protocol like Signal has "zero" value without reusing the same servers. All this because Signal maintainers have an ideological argument against decentralization, which received many great responses including this one from a Jabber/XMPP client developer: https://gultsch.de/objection.html
In all cases, Signal servers control who has an account, what permissions and what can be posted. You can't just extend the protocol to enrich your client by abusing Signal's servers, but you can make your client compatible with Signal protocol (interoperability). Preventing that is rather user-hostile.
This exact issue years ago made me think less of (and stop using) Signal rather than F-Droid. You're better off with XMPP or Matrix, plus an ordinary SMS app.
If you install signal from the apk they(moxie, signal) provide it works without google play services and it will update itself automatically, just requiring you to click a confirmation every few weeks.
Calyxos ships with Signal installed. I think it's an install time option? And it updates in an identical fashion.
You need to manually update apps from Fdroid due to artificial limitations introduced by Google for third party app stores - only Google Play and possibly device vendor apps stores can update apps automatically on non-rooted device.
agilob|4 years ago
Official F-Droid repo doesn't allow proprietary dependencies on which Signal depends for some messages (push?)
SahAssar|4 years ago
fouc|4 years ago
paulcarroty|4 years ago
Yeah, this is main reason why I avoid Signal together with Google Services usage.
unknown|4 years ago
[deleted]
Abishek_Muthian|4 years ago
[1] https://community.signalusers.org/t/wiki-signal-android-app-...
southerntofu|4 years ago
How is that reasonable in a centralized client-server model? That's precisely what we find unreasonable with Twitter and others shutting down or making life hard for 3rd party clients. Why would it be more acceptable from a free-software service?
The network effect says a centralized protocol like Signal has "zero" value without reusing the same servers. All this because Signal maintainers have an ideological argument against decentralization, which received many great responses including this one from a Jabber/XMPP client developer: https://gultsch.de/objection.html
In all cases, Signal servers control who has an account, what permissions and what can be posted. You can't just extend the protocol to enrich your client by abusing Signal's servers, but you can make your client compatible with Signal protocol (interoperability). Preventing that is rather user-hostile.
opan|4 years ago
Abishek_Muthian|4 years ago
Only reason someone is able to do that now is because WhatsApp, Messenger gets into some legal trouble and the media advertises Signal.
Preaching about significance of interoperable protocol and suggesting apps which use them is beyond the capacity of even those media.
dmm|4 years ago
Calyxos ships with Signal installed. I think it's an install time option? And it updates in an identical fashion.
enriquto|4 years ago
is it possible to disable the auto-update? i'd rather see signal stop working than auto-update behind my back.
m4rtink|4 years ago
autoexec|4 years ago
southerntofu|4 years ago
Anecdote i learned recently about Silence: it's maintained by a jurist who works for a pro-privacy non-profit in France (La Quadrature Du Net)