Introduction

Welcome to the FOSSdroid.org Wiki, created by the team behind r/FOSSdroid over on Reddit. We plan to create a forum eventually, which will serve as a fully FOSS way to talk to other FOSS Android users.

Purpose

The purpose of this Wiki is to create, serve, and maintain guides for anyone who wants to use FOSS Android applications.

Philosophy

Our philosophy is centered around decentralization, privacy, and user control. We propose that users should have full control over their devices, applications, and life. While we are fundamentally non-political, we recognize that FOSS is inherently political currently. We strive to create a non-political space for FOSS discussion, while also fostering a healthy community without trolling, hostility, and aggression.

Contribution

If you are interested in contributing to the project, please check out our GitHub repository. The README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md files are a great starting place. Feel free to create Issues if you are not familiar with the contribution process, or you may directly contribute modifications by submitting a Pull Request. Once approved, we anticipate that Pull Requests will update on the site within minutes. This is, however, dependent on completion of the CI/CD pipeline.

Due to the lead maintainer's experience in creating her own GitHub Actions pipeline for her website, we anticipate that this will not take too long.

Copyright

FOSSdroid.org is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. All contributions are governed by this license, so feel free to use any contents of the site in accordance with licensing requirements!

We also will be taking inspiration from many DivestOS Wiki pages, especially since their project is now defunct. Licensing information can be found here. We strive to build off of their work in a respectful way, therefore we have obtained permission from their founder.

What can you expect to see here?

This Wiki will serve as a hub for guides, lists, and FOSS alternatives for proprietary apps. This will be accomplished by compiling existing lists on our subreddit, finding new materials, and compiling existing knowlege of contributors.

Donations

We do not currently accept donations. We may in the future, but this is currently 100% volunteer-run, just like r/FOSSdroid is! If you see anyone soliciting donations, please ignore them, as they are likely a scammer. This page will be updated if/when we begin accepting donations. This may happen if we have to start expanding infrastructure for the site, but the lead maintainer is currently hosting this site on her homelab.

What is FOSS?

For the purposes of this wiki and for r/FOSSdroid, FOSS apps must:

• Have a FOSS license*
• Be open source
• Be free, as in freedom

They must not:

• Have a proprietary EULA**

*A FOSS license is any typical open-source license. Common examples:

• GPLv3
• GPLv2
• Apache 2.0
• Mozilla MPL
• And many more
  The above section needs work, and should be updated to include more FOSS licenses.

**A proprietary EULA:

• Is listed as an End User License Agreement, or
• Has provisions typical of proprietary software, or
• Removes one of the FOSS freedoms

What are the FOSS Freedoms?

As used by the GNU project, the FOSS freedoms require that users can do the following:

• Run
• Copy
• Distrubute
• Study
• Change, or
• Improve

Anything that violates any of these rights is enough to be no longer considered FOSS.

Luckily, there's a simple way to tell! If it's on F-Droid by default, it's FOSS enough for us. If it has one of the above mentioned FOSS licenses, it is too.

Operating Systems (ROMs)

Browsers

For the most up-to-date browser privacy tests, please visit the privacytests.org browser test page!

Browsers generally fall within three categories: Gecko-based, Blink-based, and WebView browsers. Gecko is the browser engine used by Firefox and its derivatives, while Blink is used by Chromium and its derivatives. WebView browsers rely on a WebView provider installed on your device (like Android System WebView). These browsers are often much smaller in size, but are far more limited in their privacy and security capabilities.

Gecko-based

Blink-based

WebView-based

TODO

Browsers to avoid

Generally, you should avoid browsers that are proprietary and/or not actively maintained and updated. Outdated browsers can pose a huge security risk, especially if you visit less reputable websites.

TODO: add more browsers

Voice Assistants

Are you looking for an alternative to Google Assistant, Siri, or Alexa? Then this is the place for you!

Posting Guidelines

The purpose of this subreddit is to promote, develop, and expand the ability of users to choose FOSS alternatives on Android. To meet this goal, the subreddit is primarily focused on compiling, suggesting, and requesting FOSS Android apps.

Rule 1, r/FOSSdroid

Keeping in mind the purpose of our subreddit, as well as the community rules, we have created the following Posting Guidelines:

Post Flairs

Post flairs must be consistent with the content. As such, we've created the following flairs:

1. Application Request
   • The Application Request flair is used when you're requesting an app. This is not to be conflated with the Application Suggestion flair.
2. Application Support
   • The Application Support flair is used when you're in need of support/help with an app.
3. Application Suggestion
   • The Application Suggestion flair is used for when you're suggesting apps to the subreddit that you did not create. For apps you created, please use the Application Release or Development flairs. If you're looking for an app, please use Application Request.
4. Application Release
   • The Application Release flair is used for any app releases, when you created the app. If you did not create it, please use Application Suggestion.
   • For app updates, please use Development. This flair is for new apps only.
5. Privacy
   • The Privacy flair is used for privacy updates, privacy tools, and anything else relating to privacy. Some posts with this flair may fall under other flairs as well, but this flair should be used for privacy-specific posts.
6. Other
   • The Other flair is used when your post doesn't fit any other flairs. This is not a common situation, and often results in posts that don't meet our subreddit. Please make sure that your post meets the subreddit before using this flair, and that no other flairs apply.
7. Meta
   • The Meta flair is for any meta-posts, or posts about the subreddit. This is most commonly used by mods for providing updates to the subreddit.
8. Development
   • The Development flair is used for discussing projects pre-release or post-release, when developers are involved in the discussion. This can be used for app updates, developers sharing ideas and asking for community feedback, and more.
9. F-Droid
   • The F-Droid flair is used for discussions around F-Droid and F-Droid companion apps and alternative store apps such as Droidify.

Source Code Licensing

When posting apps, please add the source license of the software you're posting (GPL, MIT, Apache, etc.). This should be at either the top or bottom of your post, or if you're posting multiple apps, please mention it with it.

Rule 3, r/FOSSdroid

When posting with the Application Suggestion, Application Release, and Development flairs, please ensure that you list the open-source license used. If you're posting something with a proprietary/EULA license, please contact mods before doing so to ensure that your post will not be removed. We will review their license and make a determination as to whether it is considered FOSS for the purposes of the subreddit.

What is FOSS? (FOSSdroid.org)

This is important because some users may consider what license an app is before installing it. Additionally, listing the license enhances the search experience by allowing people to search for specific licenses. Listing the license also allows us to more easily verify automatically whether a given app has a license, and whether it fits our definition of FOSS. One automoderator rule checks if a post contains both a link to certain APK distribution methods, as well as to check whether a known FOSS license is included.

What is spam?

In addition to the common uses of spam on Reddit, we also count links to suspicious websites as spam. This includes Telegram and certain other sites. This is because historically these sites were used for spam, advertising, and scamming on our subreddit. As such, we have a filter set up to remove such posts (pending mod review).

No VPNs

Any post asking for a VPN suggestion or shilling a VPN will be removed. Mullvad and ProtonVPN are good options. Do not use a free VPN. VPNs are not in scope for this subreddit and are frequently a target of bots.

Rule 8, r/FOSSdroid

Because of VPN spammers and shills, we have banned all VPN posts. Additionally, VPNs are not privacy tools. Because of the prevalence of bad marketing in the VPN industry, many people have misconceptions about VPNs. All they do is hide your IP address. They do not protect you from trackers or hackers. While it is true that they prevent a man-in-the-middle attack on public WIFI networks, this is only true for HTTP websites. HTTPS websites, including our FOSSdroid.org, are not vulnerable to a MITM attack unless the attacker has access to a CA (certificate authority) and the origin domain does not have DNSSEC enabled. VPNs do also hide your network traffic from your ISP, but they also show your network traffic to your VPN provider. HTTPS traffic cannot have it's contents spoofed, but they can still figure out who you might be connecting to based on DNS queries or IP addresses. If you use a DNS-over-HTTPS provider other than your VPN, they can only see what IP address you connect to. This doesn't mean they can see your traffic, as many websites make use of CDNs and reverse proxies such as Cloudflare or NGINX.

Follow the Rules

When in doubt, follow the rules, or contact the mods.