The latest is that Google is making it easier for external stores. This was in development before their recent court loss against Epic. F-Droid is still going strong imo, although it’s certainly lacking as a place to browse for apps.
If F-Droid did die something would definitely pop up in its place. It already has a protocol that allows you to monitor other app sources than the official F-Droid store, such as directly from developers. Hell, there are already alternate versions of the F-Droid app, eg AuroraDroid.
All F-Droid does is vaguely check the app and then compile it with their key. They’re simply a single point of trust for this action, a buffer between the user and the many developers writing apps. This is a service anyone could provide, however right now no one else needs to because everyone trusts F-Droid well enough for most things, and their favourite app developers enough to update directly.
LWD@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Teknikal@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Sorry I only know this from things I’ve read myself so it’s at best third hand info, but yeah from what I understand F-Droid is pretty much under constant threat of just vanishing.
I use quite a lot of F-Droid apps myself so obviously I don’t want it to and wish it had an alternative.