687
Pebble Watch Software Is Now 100% Open Source (ericmigi.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/opensource@lemmy.ml
76 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Yesterday, Pebble watch software was ~95% open source. Today, it’s 100% open source. You can download, compile and run all the software you need to use your Pebble. We just published the source code for the new Pebble mobile app!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Sorry but F-Droid allows many apps that use "undesirable" networks and services but for no reason that I can see snuffs out the one wholly supported notification system on literally all android devices. Its plug and play. Its got no place in the "Free" part of FOSS but it's still intentionally more challenging to get around.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    The difference is what code runs on your device. If proprietary libraries are included, F-Droid won't build it, and it's not allowed in their repository. There's a lot to say about whether a FOSS app that relies on proprietary network services is truly "free", there's no arguing that an app with proprietary code blobs is "free".

    Take for example an app like NewPipe. The application itself doesn't include proprietary code, but it contacts YouTube, a proprietary Google service. With the app itself being open source, you can tell exactly what it is doing on your device, and what information is sent over the network. Comparing that to something like Signal, which includes proprietary Google libraries, you'd have to decompile and reverse engineer it to try and figure out what it's doing.

    If you have a FOSS library that interacts with Google Play Services or microG to enable FCM, it would (probably) be allowed on F-Droid. (I'm not on their team, I can't make a definitive statement about this).

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago

    I tried to find the binary blobs in Signal for android but it looks like a Kotlin app to me. Maybe these were there at one point but were removed later, who knows.

    Come to think of it I'm surprised that we can say "no Google play services" but in the same breath support MicroG as if the client apps have anything to do with which version of Play Services they support.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent