Hi everybody!
It's my first post here, I'm quite a noob at all these Android things, but I got my HTC Hero last year and have been using it quite a lot since then.
I'm also fond of FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software), and I always try to find an open source equivalent to what I'm using. That's how I switched to Ubuntu Linux 6 years ago and never came back to Windows
I've been looking on the Web, reading Android news websites, and I realized they never talk about open source software being developed for Android phones. At most, they will talk about free (as in beer) softwares, but most of the time these are ad-supported or quickly become ad-supported if they're popular.
For instance, I looked for a music player (cause the one offered by HTC is quite slow and poorly reads OGG music -- yes I'm also in open formats!), and I could only find ad-supported free-ish softwares (MixZing player for instance)... but no open source choice!
On Linux, there are dozens of music players, and of course they're all open source, so you just choose the one you like the best, and even if it doesn't suit you perfectly, you can modify it or develop a plugin for it!
I was wondering if all that was because of the Android Market. Could it be possible to push an open source application on the Android Market? Would it be accepted?
Anyways, to summarize: Is there an open source community on Android?
Thanks in advance!
I'd say yes, you can find many oss in android market, but generally the source is in devs personal page. For instance my apps are open-source, the rom hackers generally give out their source, and more. However i don't know if there are oss apps for all categories...
Hi!
Thanks for your answer! (and congrats for the supertux port )
I'm pretty concerned about the multimedia part... So far:
MixZing Player ==> Ad supported, closed sources
Tune Wiki ==> Ad supported, closed sources
Astro Player ==> Commercial software, closed sources
Cubed ==> Closed sources
etc.
The only one I see was Rock On, which used to be closed sources until the project was discontinued (now the sources are available on github I guess).
As for the other softwares, a lot of them are created by people who think they're going to be rich by selling 0.99 USD softwares... therefore all these softwares are (obviously) closed-sources!
not to be a smart ass but, as long as it works, does it really matter if the source is available?
Yes FOSS is great but if there's a closed source app that does the job I'll use it, there's nothing wrong with closed source vs open when it comes to functionality
Of course, it's mainly a philosophical/ethical topic.
But to give you an example, MixZing recently decided to add an ad-supported system. In the initial release after this system was applied, ads were displayed every 10 seconds, it became almost unusable!
Of course, because a lot of people complained, the MixZin developers changed that. Yet, it's still heavily invaded with ads everywhere...
Another thing is that if you like a software but think it lacks a functionality, with open source you can add it. Of course, it requires technical skills, but the most important thing is that it is possible. With closed source, the only thing you can do is to send a feedback to the developers, then cross your fingers and hope that your request will be implemented in the next version.
A last thing: if the software is discontinued (e.g. the main developers lack of time to keep maintaining the software), the source is available for anybody to maintain it. With closed sources, well... use your software until the next Android update tells you it's too old to run on your system!
By the way, I should twist my fingers 7 times before typing anything: the main developer of RockOn created a project called ^3 (Cubed) which is open source as well, and which has evolved a lot since the last time I checked it! It might become my music player of choice!
I personally use Music Mod. I'm not sure if it's open or not, it's based on the stock music player.
As for open source vs not, I use the best tool for the job. I've used Linux for 11 years and Unix for years before that but I'm no source code tree hugging hippy..
There are many open source software.. I'd have to guess most on code.google.com are open..
arcMedia is based off ffmpeg and so should be OSS
(appbrain playing up today so link here)
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/multimedia/arcmedia_jpez.html
Hi xda community.
this it my first post showing an interesant campaign.
We are four young developers trying to raise money so we can spend all our time building Ares4droid; an open source p2p client for Android that will get access to p2p ares galaxy network.
The Ares Galaxy source code is free so, we only have to code it on Android Platform. What we need is the time it takes to create a elegant mobile version of this software. We are all ready to work for six months totally focused on building Ares4droid. We want to spend all our time writing code to give you a great piece of software. We are going to release our code as free software so everyone can make Ares4droid even better.
Now, we give us any donation in money or promulgate the project idea with the facebook and twitter buttons placed into the project page, for more information about the project visit us.
w.w.w.indiegogo.com/Ares4droid
thank you for read this post, and you can support us in the cause :highfive:
github.com/psaravan/JamsMusicPlayer
Jams is a free, powerful and elegant music player for Android. Jams used to be a trial/paid app on the Play Store. Due to my lack of adequate free time and other issues, I've decided that I can no longer provide the level of support and active development that paid users expect from a developer. Rather than letting Jams completely die off and abandoning my users, I've open sourced the app and hosted it on GitHub (see link above) to encourage other developers to potentially improve it, use it in their own personal projects, and re-release it to users.
I will still occasionally update this app based on my free time, but it will probably be beta quality code. If you are a developer who's interested in using Jams' current codebase, I encourage you to fork this repository and/or directly contribute to it. If you decide to launch your own fork of Jams on the Play Store, feel free to drop me a line so I can feature it on my GitHub page.
Just want to thank everyone who's supported Jams Music Player over the past year. It's been an awesome experience for me and I really enjoyed receiving feedback from everyone in this subreddit and elsewhere. The app has received a major UI overhaul over the past few weeks and I will be publishing the free version of the app on the Play Store in the next few weeks once I get any existing kinks ironed out. Hopefully I'll be able to find more time again in the near future to work on this app full-time.
Imgur links to the new UI:
i.imgur.com/2hdMFzP.jpg
i.imgur.com/tdLiCVY.jpg
Tl;dr: I no longer have enough free time to develop Jams in a way that justifies asking people to pay for it. The app is now open source and a free version will be released on Google Play in the next 3-4 weeks.
is ACEMUSIC is based on your code?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/complete-material-design-acemusic-t2904994
unable to find any mention but even whole UI is same as of your code
Yeap, that player is definitely based off my codebase. The developer did mention my name in the "Special Thanks" section of their post.
JamsMusicPlayer said:
Yeap, that player is definitely based off my codebase. The developer did mention my name in the "Special Thanks" section of their post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after thread block, he decided to add credit, now thread is reopened.
without any change in ui he is claiming to be Material design also...
Android SDK sucks. It's so slow to build and run which waste me a lot of time every day.
Facebook Buck http://github.com/facebook/buck build is fast. However, the biggest problem with Buck is, it requires you to change a lot of codes, and restructs your project in small modules. Indeed, it is troublesome to just make it work properly on the existing android project, especially if you have big project. I have tried using Buck build system instead of Gradle on my test project. However, it took me a week just to make it work.
Link LayoutCast
Credits to mmin18, Timeszoro..
Thread closed per OP request.
The developer for Graph 89, a graphing calculator emulator for Android, popular for its ability to reliably emulate a range of Texas Instruments' most common academic calculators is up for grabs. The developer used code from multiple open source projects and released the full, paid editions code in 2013. The emulator is very useful but is somewhat in need of a UI/UX update. Also, seeing the paid version eventually make it to the play store with regular updates again would be nice.
Now for the challenge.
Many users of tablets would love to see an application like this get floating app support. Nothing would be nicer than to be able to have a good ol ti-84/89 hovering on my screen when I didn't pack either in my bag that day. So if you have any experience with developing for android, please at least take a look. Maybe even pick it up on your spare time as a pet project!
This is to check user interest AND see interested developers speak up about picking up the project again, as well as just make everyone aware that the source is available and will need some documentation updates.
Source here:
https://bitbucket.org/dhashoandroid/graph89-paid
As I am NOT the author a s have never built this one from source, I can only really answer any related questions with "Look at the code, use Google, peruse the comments, or just buy the compiled version on the play store".
Play store link is NOT here because I would rather draw interest to the code and not send money in the direction of someone who isn't maintaining it anymore. Thanks and let's do this!