Category: News

Happy new alpha!

Posted on by Michael G

This Week in F-Droid

TWIF curated on Thursday, 02 Jan 2025, Week 1

F-Droid core

We wish you a Happy New Year! and we bring the new F-Droid and F-Droid Basic 1.22.0-alpha0, which marks the start of another dev testing cycle.

What’s new? More polishing, bug fixing and pain points addressed:

  • use “gentle update” API so apps don’t get killed while in use
  • experimental support for un-archiving apps on Android 15
  • separate share link and share file actions in app details (so you can share the link to the app page or the installed APK)
  • clean internal caches more often to free up space (Thanks DerGenaue!)
  • don’t update repos if they already have been updated in last 15sec
  • re-order donation badges to match website (Thanks Leo!)
  • show toast when APK has more permissions than expected (if your Android distro injects extra permissions, you’ll know)
  • add settings toggle to prefer foreign mirrors
  • verify hash of downloaded image resources and reject invalid ones
  • don’t show apps with “bad” anti-features in category view
  • don’t show error dialog for (un)installs when user actively aborted
  • don’t update repos twice on fresh/clean app start
  • auto fallback to other installer if priv-ext doesn’t have permissions
  • reduce DB size by checkpointing more frequently (Thanks DerGenaue!)
  • fix a crash when a repo removed

As usual we ask brave users to test this release and offer feedback as soon as possible. For example, “use ‘gentle update’ API so apps don’t get killed while in use” needs some attention, keep an eye on interactions with apps that keep a foreground service active, say like your email client or your messaging app, do they autoupdate as expected?

How to install this new alpha? In F-Droid Client, on its own page, either scroll down, expand Versions and install the latest, or in the upper right menu choose “Allow Beta updates”.

Community News

@codedoctor is a bit late here but wanted us to know that Linwood Butterfly 2.2.3 was released. It sounds like a small release but it’s one of the biggest quality of life updates.

Highlights:

🎨 More interface customization
💾 Save button indicator for autosave
🖊️ Laser tool improvements
📝 Template dialog improvements
🎨 Color wheel
🖼️ Render resolution

Full blog entry here.

Tailscale was updated to 1.78.1-t8903926f7-gfdc1e9ca4 after more than 2 months, as version 1.72.0 had some issues that we mentioned in TWIF 2024 week 43. Another good news is that the app might be swichable to build reproducible soon, if upstream agrees.

Newly Added Apps

3 apps were newly added
  • Al-Azkar: Imam Al-Hafiz Yahya bin Sharafah Al-Din Al-Nawawi
  • Flip 2 DND: Toggle Do Not Disturb mode by flipping your phone face down
  • SimbaDroid: A simple SMB file server (needs root)

Updated Apps

94 more apps were updated

(expand for the full list)

Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂

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Windows 2: Final Fantasy of operating systems

Posted on by Michael G
It is common knowledge that Final Fantasy could have been the last game in the series. It is far less known that Windows 2, released around the same time, could too have been the last. If anything, things were more certain: even Microsoft believed that Windows 2 would be the last. The miracle of overwhelming commercial success brought incredible attention to Windows. The retro community and computer historians generally seem to be interested in the legendary origins of the system (how it all began) or in its turnabout Windows 3.0 release (what did they do right?). This story instead will be about the underdog of Windows, version 2. To understand where it all went wrong, we must start looking at events that happened even before Microsoft was founded. By necessity, I will talk a lot about the origins of Windows, too. Instead of following interpersonal/corporate drama, I will try to focus on the technical aspects of Windows and its competitors, as well as the technological limitations of the computers around the time. Some details are so convoluted and obscure that even multiple Microsoft sources, including Raymond Chen, are wrong about essential technical details. It is going to be quite a journey, and it might seem a bit random, but I promise that eventually, it all will start making sense. ↫ Nina Kalinina I’m not going to waste your previous time with my stupid babbling when you could instead spend it reading this amazingly detailed, lovingly crafted, beautifully illustrated, and deeply in-depth article by Nina Kalinina about the history, development, and importance of Windows 2. She’s delivered something special here, and it’s a joy to read and stare at the screenshots from beginning to end. Don’t forget to click on the little expander triangles for a ton of in-depth technical stuff and even more background information.

Si certains d’entre vous peuvent reflechir plus souvent ca pourrait être top

Posted on by Michael G
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Si tu es descendu jusque-là, n’oublie pas de liker la vidéo, après tout, t’as bien cliqué sur “en voir plus”, tu peux bien utiliser un clic de plus…

Pablo Escobar’s private jet opens as Bristol AirBNB

Posted on by Michael G
An abandoned Boeing 727 plane once owned by Pablo Escobar has been transformed into the world’s coolest Airbnb – and makes guests feel like billionaires.

The private jet resides on an industrial estate in Bristol – and comes with a hot tub and sauna and can cost up to £850 per night.

Originally built in 1968 and fitted out as a private jet in 1981, the aircraft was still flying up until 2012 – when it made its final journey to Filton Airfield.

Businessman Johnny Palmer, 41, secured consent from Bristol City Council for his project.

He now offers guests the chance to live like a billionaires at 32-feet.