The point of free software isn’t security, but freedom. For people who want control of their computing, this is not an “arbitrary restriction” but rather a basic requirement. Just because you don’t particularly care about a concern doesn’t make it “arbitrary.” I’m not a vegan or vegetarian but I don’t complain about the “arbitrary restriction” of a plant-based diet.
I think your thinking im against FOSS but you’re not understanding. Many people in the FOSS community only care about privacy and ignore security. A developer can implement security benefits to FOSS but many people don’t care to do it.
Accrescent is FOSS and it has much higher security benefits than F-Droid. Accrescent allows both open and closed sourced apps because there’s no benefit being exclusive to having FOSS apps in their catalog.
If the user chooses to not use proprietary apps on Accrescent, they don’t have to install them.
It’s a misconception to say that free software is “about privacy.” Many people in the free software community care about having the four freedoms (the freedom to use, share, modify, and share modified copies). We don’t like free software because we think it’s more secure, we like it because it’s free software. Freedom doesn’t need a justification other than freedom itself.
For us, a catalogue offering only free software isn’t an “arbitrary rule” that’s the whole point. If F-Droid carries an app I know I have the four freedoms with that app, because they put in the work to verify that, by building the app according to their (relatively strict, not strict enough IMO) standards. Accrescent and Obtainium fans have different priorities, which is okay, but I don’t understand why they spend so much time shitting on F-Droid and the free software movement.
Security is important in free software, but security in proprietary software is often user-hostile (for example, DRM and WEI). Often times the only way to regain freedom in a proprietary environment is to exploit a security hole, so sometimes we prefer that proprietary software actually not be very secure.
As for F-Droid’s and the free software’s community towards “old” apps, we understand that software does not lose value simply by being unmaintained. Of course, if something is particularly security-critical and/or has a large attack surface (for example an operating system or a web browser). I would stay away from anything unmaintained. That doesn’t apply to all software, though.
The point of free software isn’t security, but freedom. For people who want control of their computing, this is not an “arbitrary restriction” but rather a basic requirement. Just because you don’t particularly care about a concern doesn’t make it “arbitrary.” I’m not a vegan or vegetarian but I don’t complain about the “arbitrary restriction” of a plant-based diet.
I think your thinking im against FOSS but you’re not understanding. Many people in the FOSS community only care about privacy and ignore security. A developer can implement security benefits to FOSS but many people don’t care to do it.
Accrescent is FOSS and it has much higher security benefits than F-Droid. Accrescent allows both open and closed sourced apps because there’s no benefit being exclusive to having FOSS apps in their catalog.
If the user chooses to not use proprietary apps on Accrescent, they don’t have to install them.
It’s a misconception to say that free software is “about privacy.” Many people in the free software community care about having the four freedoms (the freedom to use, share, modify, and share modified copies). We don’t like free software because we think it’s more secure, we like it because it’s free software. Freedom doesn’t need a justification other than freedom itself.
For us, a catalogue offering only free software isn’t an “arbitrary rule” that’s the whole point. If F-Droid carries an app I know I have the four freedoms with that app, because they put in the work to verify that, by building the app according to their (relatively strict, not strict enough IMO) standards. Accrescent and Obtainium fans have different priorities, which is okay, but I don’t understand why they spend so much time shitting on F-Droid and the free software movement.
Security is important in free software, but security in proprietary software is often user-hostile (for example, DRM and WEI). Often times the only way to regain freedom in a proprietary environment is to exploit a security hole, so sometimes we prefer that proprietary software actually not be very secure.
As for F-Droid’s and the free software’s community towards “old” apps, we understand that software does not lose value simply by being unmaintained. Of course, if something is particularly security-critical and/or has a large attack surface (for example an operating system or a web browser). I would stay away from anything unmaintained. That doesn’t apply to all software, though.