I am considering whether I can submit a version of GitHub - JoinSEEDS/seeds_light_wallet to F-droid. This app currently relies on firebase realtime database for some backend functions. As I understand it, our “Light Wallet” mobile app is fully FOSS in this regard, as the only firebase code it incorporates is from the Apache-licensed firebase android sdk. It does not need to use analytics.
Does the F-Droid policy allow this, or is our app (while FOSS itself) ineligible because it communicates with a proprietary back-end service?
There is a phrase in the Inclusion Policy, “to be FLOSS, the software in its entirety must be so.” I am wondering whether “in its entirety” is intended to mean both front end (the part which actually resides in the f-droid repository) and back end. That could make sense, and would answer my question. It would perhaps be helpful to state explicitly whether back end components must be FOSS in order for the front end to be includable.
in general it is true that, because of the loose coupling between front and back ends, there could be ambiguous cases where the user of a FOSS mobile app can choose whether to connect to either FOSS or proprietary back-end services. But I would like to first understand whether f-droid’s inclusion concern extends to the back-end.
Thanks