I saw this new “store” application that links to GitHub, allowing easy access to applications that aren’t even available on F-Droid at all! It would be viable as a 3rd method of acquiring applications in conjunction with F-Droid & Aurora Store…
But when I tried using it, it started demanding a sign-in to GitHub, and that right there gets me a bit worried, as I did try signing up on GitHub earlier but got stuck in the process and decided against signing up. So the application is rather useless, is this a technical form of censorship?
The reason I bring this up is simple: GitHub is a great place to get Android applications that are not available on any service, may it be F-Droid or Google, but how can I get around that pesky sign-in limitation?
Be very careful in getting apps from GitHub or other websites, there’s generally no whatsoever guarantee that the apks you download were made out of their supposed source code, without modifications; and even that source code rarely gets a lot of eyes.
GitHub is owned by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft acquired GitHub on October 26, 2018, in a deal valued at $7.5 billion, and since then, GitHub has operated as a subsidiary of Microsoft.
I don’t think you can. The way it’s currently built causes it to use Github servers a lot to the point it constantly hits the rate limit without an account.
Only two options I see are either making a throwaway github account (which is a perfectly viable thing to do but I would leave it as the last resort)
Or working around the issue by just searching for apps with your browser of choice and then just adding them to obtainium for updates.
It’s not a pretty platform by any means and I’m sure a good amount of devs are probably getting more and more tired of it’s constant bad practices especially recently. I know I did I work on a private filterlist in my freetime and I transitioned from GitHub to Codeberg. Codeberg is not perfect either but when you compare ethical practices and user treatment there is a clear winner between the two.
Regardless I doubt a lot of developers are going to jump ship. Similar cases to things like Youtube and Twitch where the accessible audience is just far bigger on Github than competing platforms. I can’t blame them for that either that’s just how things are.
But you could try not using github services though I say good luck to that though F-Droid actually does provide a pretty good place to start given the fact that every app you download is built from the source and on F-Droid owned servers or at the very least reputable mirrors.
You definitely will want to monitor your connections though as there are a decent amount of FOSS apps that will either intentionally or unintentionally call to github servers. Just a extra note if you use a browser that supports extensions the extensions can also make calls to Github servers. These however can also be monitored by you.
If you don’t have a app for this rethink is a solid option. If apps aren’t your style there are also DNS services that can do it for you. Just a warning though unless you self host it’s fair to assume most DNS services will be not FOSS. Additionally if you are in a place where censorship is a bit strict Rethink would have a easier time fulfilling it’s role because aside from it just being plain harder to censor it also can apply network filtering locally on device so even if you did get blocked for using a custom DNS you could still monitor and filter connections while using your iSP provided DNS.
Not sure if any of this will help you just trying to throw some sort of bone here.
This is honestly a very good idea and I have seen some devs do this. Unfortunately some is not a lot. And even more so unfortunately some devs actually choose to encourage github over the more ethical alternatives. Though usually it is for a fair technical reason and not them actively trying to push people away from these alternatives. Hopefully we can see more adoption of such a practice in the future since it while probably is a tad bit more fatiguing it is also one of the safest ways of slowly migrating for both users and devs alike.
I actually did do this with my filterlist at first and when I got comfortable enough with Codeberg I just fully deleted the Github repo. Codeberg isn’t perfect and honestly sometimes I find editing files on it very frustrating to the point most of the time I just edit them on device and just either copy paste the modified file or just outright re-upload it. Not the most convienent way to do things but it works and I’m okay with it.
So…Now not only do we need YouTube, Microsoft, Apple and Google alternatives, but now we have to add GitHub to that list too…The Internet really is falling apart!
Github already has pretty strong and for the most part frictionless alternatives. People just need some encouragement to switch. The other things you mentioned however yeah those are still some pretty big problems from how strong the monopolies they have are to the fact that Linux isn’t exactly a friction free OS a lot of the time. Not trying to downplay Linux comparatively to where it was it is a lot better now. But still isn’t anything that’s going to bring the herd of sheep home.
YouTube also has a lot of alternatives but I think the bigger issue is those alternatives can’t thrive properly due to the goal basically being to be a attention based platform. So since most of the attention is on YouTube…… it’s not like Github where a creator/developer can get away with moving away. With video watching platforms your entire existence really does hinge on people knowing who you are. This makes switching really difficult when most people are just focused on Youtube. And you can’t really blame them the world kind of sucks and most of them watch their favorite content creators as a form of escapism. So how could they switch when their favorite content is only on Youtube? I have tried several times to flock to better platforms like mastodon, peertube etc. The issue is the kind of people I am interested in aren’t on there. Most you’ll find a lot of the time is political debates and other stuff like that.
I get enough of that in my daily life I don’t need yet another person speaking their mind just giving me more to think about. Of course I am not blaming the person they have every right to speak their mind and that’s likely why they are there to not get censored.
But it’s just my point. If I can’t find the stuff I want to see. Then what is there to do? It’s the platform for me but the people for me aren’t there.
Which makes me curious have you found any alternatives to anything whether it be software or service that you find decent enough to suggest? If you are okay with answering that, that is.
I know a lot but my knowledge like everyone’s is limited so I am wondering if you would know of any that I don’t. I am always interested in evaluating and learning about alternatives to the absolute disgusting mainstream services of today.
