this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Simple Mobile Tools is being sold to a for-profit firm ZipoApps (programming.dev)
submitted 2 years ago by gogosempai@programming.dev to c/android@lemmy.world
134 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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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[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 147 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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.

[–] sadbehr@lemmy.nz 25 points 2 years 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.

[–] Sphks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 years 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.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 12 points 2 years 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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[–] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 93 points 2 years ago (7 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

[–] itsmect@monero.town 19 points 2 years 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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[–] Yamayo@lemm.ee 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Well, you paid and still got sold.

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[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 89 points 2 years 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."

[–] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 years 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.

[–] AbeFroman@lemmy.world 84 points 2 years 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.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 20 points 2 years ago

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

[–] RandomLegend@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 years 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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[–] AnActOfCreation@programming.dev 44 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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

https://github.com/FossifyX

[–] fne8w2ah@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Thank fuck.

[–] Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.world 41 points 2 years ago

The death of Quik Pic was when it was sold

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

[–] stifle867@programming.dev 39 points 2 years 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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[–] GenderNeutralBro 23 points 2 years ago

Well, that sucks.

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

[–] sag@lemm.ee 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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

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[–] FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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

[–] sfgifz@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years 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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[–] burgersc12@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 years ago

I guess I don't need a gallery app..

[–] pelya@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The temporary solution

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[–] Trincapinones@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

I paid for the apps to avois this...

[–] mojo@lemm.ee 14 points 2 years ago

Big F, they had some good apps.

[–] schwim@reddthat.com 14 points 2 years ago

Everyone has a price.

[–] Sanyanov@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

Terrible to see.

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[–] Anti_Weeb_Penguin@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Damn, i will really miss the Gallery app

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[–] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

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

Thank you for sharing this!

[–] lambalicious 11 points 2 years ago

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

[–] Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] nandos@programming.dev 8 points 2 years ago

Time to disable auto update for these apps in the stores

[–] aprnu@feddit.ch 11 points 2 years ago

Recently on their blog --> Aug 29, 2023

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 10 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Sigh.

Anyone used Etar calendar app? I use Simple Calendar for its ability to export everything to one ICS file. I see Etar can use ICS, but is it a full calendar import/export? Or one event at a time? Related question, is there anything better?

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[–] LollerCorleone@kbin.social 10 points 2 years ago

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

[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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.

[–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 years ago

Damn, SMT was great for filling in system tools on custom ROMs, anyone got any good alternative gallery apps with a similar feature set?

[–] DeathWearsANecktie@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago

FFS just started using these apps

[–] dandu3@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Same shit company bought the pixel minimal watch face, and they're now charging like 18$ PER WEEK for premium features.

I had already bought it thankfully and I kept my premium status but still. I was not happy

[–] gogosempai@programming.dev 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

$18 per week?! Damn Netflix and Disney+ prices aren't even that high.

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[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Part of the reason why I prefer to use open source apps whenever possible is because of this, you never really know if an app will be bought out by someone shady and start adding gross stuff to it, but open source apps can and will be forked.

Not an ideological reason, but a practical one.

[–] AlijahTheMediocre@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Its opensource, assuming the new owners move it to a less favorable license just fork the last good version and continue from there.

[–] gogosempai@programming.dev 17 points 2 years ago

One of the devs has already forked it and plans to maintain the project.

https://github.com/FossifyX

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