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 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

168 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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[–] [email protected] 147 points 11 months 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 11 months 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 11 months 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 11 months 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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[–] [email protected] 109 points 11 months 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 11 months ago (5 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (2 children)

https://www.androidpolice.com/nova-launcher-acquired-by-branch/

Kind of old article, but yea, they were sold.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

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

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 11 months 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 11 months 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 11 months ago (1 children)

Well, you paid and still got sold.

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 11 months 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 11 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 11 months 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 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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

https://github.com/FossifyX

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months 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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[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Yeah thankfully the code's GPL 3.0, but I'd imagine there's a good chunk of people using the app from the Play Store who may not be aware or may not want to compile the app themselves, who might be affected with whatever future updates come out.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

Well, that sucks.

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

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months 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] 21 points 11 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months 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] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Everyone has a price.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's the beauty of FOSS. Just download the existing app and blacklist it from updates. Someone will archive the existing code so it can be downloaded later.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months 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 11 months ago (1 children)

Time to disable auto update for these apps in the stores

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months 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 11 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months 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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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (3 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The temporary solution

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Better switch to the F-Droid version.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

I paid for the apps to avois this...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

Big F, they had some good apps.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months 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 11 months ago (2 children)

Damn, i will really miss the Gallery app

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months 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 11 months 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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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Terrible News!!!
The developer of these apps I've been using for years, and who hasn't seen a single penny in donations from me in all that time, has decided to sell them!
Now I'm really mad at them for selling out, and am forced to move to another set of apps someone else has made for me to use free of charge.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (6 children)

you know, I'd really love to get a good app that i pay for and that in turn doesn't collect or sell my data and has no ads, but there's so many but's.

one time payment is not sustainable for development
i can't have a subscription for each and every app
with free and fairly decent apps from big Corp like Google photos, most people won't bother

just to say: I'm not sure there is a good solution where everyone wins :/

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

I donated to them directly once and then again opted for the PlayStore versions to buy these apps. Sadly, I will have to move to the FDroid version now because the PlayStore one, the ones I paid for, can get infected with adware any day now.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Recently on their blog --> Aug 29, 2023

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