F-Droid is one of the first apps I install when I get a new phone. That said, I usually just use the F-Droid app to install an alternate client (yes, I could download clients manually...).
There's Neo Store[0] which is a fork of Droid-ify[1] which itself is a fork of Foxy Droid[2] (no longer updated). Personally I use Neo Store, includes more repos by default and can auto update apps.
There is F-droid Basic, which lacks a few less popular functions but contains a rework of app installation. It can install apps in background as well. It's very smooth in my case, works pretty much like auto updating on play store.
I could not make it work. Did you had to do anything special?
From what I learned, only apps that target Android 12and above could have this background update feature. I'm on Android 13 but none of the apps I use updated.
I had to switch back to using the f-droid privileged extension.
I've personally found the notifications that updates are available to be more consistent with Neo Store over Droid-ify. (I've had both installed at the same time, Neo always showed up first, despite the same settings).
I was a user of the latter initially when it started as a fork of Foxy Droid. At one point development slowed down and Neo Store was created and had active development, and I've used that ever since. Both are still actively developed as far as I know.
Sorting by "last updated" doesn't really tell you anything about the app's quality, and I really do not want to install and try 30 different apps solving the same problem just to see which one is better. Plenty of people have done so before me, so just tell me which one is the most popular!
Mandatory reporting of usage statistics runs contrary to one of the freedoms inherent to FOSS, that the software is for the user's freedom.
But surely there should be a way to reconcile no-spying with usage reporting through some voluntary means. For example, Debian allows users to install the popularity-contest package.
"Mandatory reporting of usage statistics runs contrary to one of the freedoms inherent to FOSS, that the software is for the user's freedom."
Why? You don't need to do tracking, just have a counter on the server that increases every time someone downloads the repository. What does this have to do with FOSS?
I created a small website to display F-Droid apps with their repository information (from github, gitlab, etc), it's not perfect but it can give more insights on a project popularity.
For any given purpose, there's usually maybe three apps in the store that fit the bill. Sorting by last updated is a great way to find the most popular apps, as they're generally also the most well-maintained. There's little reason to keep updating an app when something else does everything better.
The only "old" app I keep using is Barcode Scanner (com.google.zxing.client.android), since it's a classic that will likely never stop working.
I second your NeoStore recommendation but I'm always open to trying others. AuroraDroid fell out of usefulness although I still use AuroraStore for play store stuff.
I just installed Neo Store, and as soon I updated the repository data, it started downloading and trying to install all apps that weren't on the latest version.
I'm still searching for "just right". And while I know that posting comments is an experimental feature in Glider, I was pretty miffed today when I lost a somewhat lengthy reply that I had spent the previous thirty minutes drafting.
Nevertheless, I know better than to blame anyone but myself for the loss. I should have been copying my progress to a safer location the entire time, and the source is right there, waiting for my patch. As always, the joys of free software abound.
Wow thank you for suggesting this. I've tried so many apps and nothing has really hit the sweet spot for me. But I just downloaded this upon reading your suggestion and it literally checks all the boxes for me. Amazing find!
A nice thing about F-Droid is that there's a lot of open source apps that on Google Play have an ad-supported free version and a no-ads paid version - but on F-Droid the no-ads version is freely available.
Readit News
There's Neo Store[0] which is a fork of Droid-ify[1] which itself is a fork of Foxy Droid[2] (no longer updated). Personally I use Neo Store, includes more repos by default and can auto update apps.
[0]: https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Store
[1]: https://github.com/Droid-ify/client
[2]: https://github.com/kitsunyan/foxy-droid
You can get it through... regular fdroid!
From what I learned, only apps that target Android 12and above could have this background update feature. I'm on Android 13 but none of the apps I use updated. I had to switch back to using the f-droid privileged extension.
I was a user of the latter initially when it started as a fork of Foxy Droid. At one point development slowed down and Neo Store was created and had active development, and I've used that ever since. Both are still actively developed as far as I know.
My experience has been the opposite: droidify has been more "stable" than neostore for me.
[0]: https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/auroradroid
Sorting by "last updated" doesn't really tell you anything about the app's quality, and I really do not want to install and try 30 different apps solving the same problem just to see which one is better. Plenty of people have done so before me, so just tell me which one is the most popular!
But surely there should be a way to reconcile no-spying with usage reporting through some voluntary means. For example, Debian allows users to install the popularity-contest package.
Why? You don't need to do tracking, just have a counter on the server that increases every time someone downloads the repository. What does this have to do with FOSS?
It's available here: https://dbeley.github.io/fdroid-insights/
The only "old" app I keep using is Barcode Scanner (com.google.zxing.client.android), since it's a classic that will likely never stop working.
I also like this CLI for bulk downloading apks for initializing a new device over adb: https://github.com/mvdan/fdroidcl
To get releases faster there is obtanium: https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium
Just a heads up.
https://github.com/Mosc/Glider
https://f-droid.org/pt_BR/packages/com.jiaqifeng.hacki/
https://github.com/SimonHalvdansson/Harmonic-HN
I'm still searching for "just right". And while I know that posting comments is an experimental feature in Glider, I was pretty miffed today when I lost a somewhat lengthy reply that I had spent the previous thirty minutes drafting.
Nevertheless, I know better than to blame anyone but myself for the loss. I should have been copying my progress to a safer location the entire time, and the source is right there, waiting for my patch. As always, the joys of free software abound.
Written from the aforementioned app.
F-Droid has everything I need, and conveniently provides direct apk download if I want to restore the device without going online.