This kind of gatekeeping and elitism is bad for Lemmy and for FOSS.
It makes this community a less welcoming place and leaves new folks with a bad first impression. Much better to be welcoming and let people learn/see the benefits of FOSS at their own pace.
I'd given up on lemmy because every so I had tried was unfinished and unpolished. I tried sync and finally felt like the user experience wasn't getting in the way of content.
I'd love to support foss, if a genuinely comparable experience existed.
I'm glad to say that sync has revived my interest in lemmy.
It's been one year of this conversation, but I just found it now.
Sync has also made me use Lemmy more often, but I was still missing a good web environment until recently when I started using photon. It is the best web experience I had using Lemmy and now I'm using as a progressive web app.
Photon repository here! Give it a star or start contributing to it.
This is why I unsubscribed from the Android community. I love Android, I use nothing but Linux at home and really appreciate open source software.
But the FOSS...enthusiasm is starting to border on zealotry. It's getting really unpleasant.
100% agree. Going “haha, aren’t I COOL for NOT using this one popular app or software!?” contributes absolutely nothing and actively makes the community uninviting. I’m all for FOSS, but if a closed-source app is better than the FOSS options, I ain’t gonna knock on anybody for using it.
Also why even use an app outside of accessibility reasons? Been using Kbin on a mobile browser and it’s been a pretty good experience.
I don't get the point of this.
Since when did Sync masquerade itself as FOSS?
Just use whatever you want. Isn't that why we're all here?
Is the Sync noise getting to you? Just ignore it. It's natural since the app just opened up and there were a significant amount of Reddit refugees that badly wanted their app back.
Sync is just so much more polished than all of these already... It's exactly like how it was when it was for reddit, and it's just one dev! I don't mind all all paying for a fantastic app.
You guys are taking the justified corpo hate and extending it to talented individual devs just making a living.
FOSS isn't about "corpo hate". It's about freedom. There's a philosophy behind it. You can, of course, disagree with it, but I think you should know what you're disagreeing with.
If the users don't control the program, the program controls the users. With proprietary software, there is always some entity, the developer or “owner” of the program, that controls the program—and through it, exercises power over its users. A nonfree program is a yoke, an instrument of unjust power.
I'm talking about the community. A large part of the community absolutely is about gate-keeping and hating on corporations... and now devs too apparently.
I am disliking this sentiment. I am on the Fediverse because Sync's developer and many others were betrayed by Reddit and I wanted to show solidarity and to 'punish' Reddit by leaving. The Fediverse's values are admirable, but I do not share them all. I believe in supporting good projects, even some that are private if they don't pose a risk of destroying something bigger, and Sync is a good project that can be easily abandoned without consequences if something goes wrong.
Paid software absolutely has a place in the world. Evil companies producing evil software designed to build a monopoly and lock out FOSS apps do not. I don't think Sync falls into the latter and I'm happy they've made the choice to be able to eat.
If apps were girls:
I was always in love with Sync. But life happened and we had to go different ways for non-romantic reasons. Some fucker called Spez, long story...
Eventually I met Voyager and she was great. Any user would be lucky to have her. But Sync was always the one that got away. Everyday I looked at Voyager and thought she was awesome but I was always holding a candle for Sync. But Sync was gone and I had to move on. But I could never really move on.
But life happened again and Sync was coming back. I had committed to Voyager but, as great as she was, I always thought how she came short of Sync. Sync came back and she was as stunning as I remembered. I couldn't stay with Voyager. I'm sorry Voyager. You're an awesome girl but I was pretty much just using you since I couldn't have Sync.
I'm a user Voyager, I make no excuses. There, there...
I say this as someone that uses FOSS day to day for work, I don't really give a shit if my Lemmy app is FOSS.
For me, Sync was Reddit. It's where 99% of my interaction with Reddit happened. I don't really give a shit about Lemmy or the fediverse either. I'm here because Sync is a seamless product that gave me the best interface.
Despite saying that I don't care about Lemmy or other distributed servers, Sync is basically that sync (lol) for me. Once I map my old subreddits on Lemmy, the experience doesn't change.
To be fair, this should be the other way around. All these foss apps are the teletubbies because they're clunky and have major bugs. Sync is the power ranger.
Yeah I've used all the apps in this post and Sync is just light years ahead of all of them right now. Well worth the 19$ to remove the ads
Kinda shitty to hate on Sync like this for not being foss when the dev never claimed it to be.
Tbh, I think this whole thing is being blown out of proportion. Part of FOSS and the internet in general is the ability to have choice over what you use and spend your time with. Just because Sync is out, doesn't mean you can't continue to use your FOSS apps. It just means that we now have an option for people who want to pay for a very polished experience.
Oh nooooooo someone made a familiar and easy to use app to help people get used to this new ecosystem that can only thrive if people actually show up and use it. What a real shame.
Are we really being this petty already?
Sync is by far the most polished. Everyone acting this is some major company. It's literally one dude.
I like all the FOSS and community development of different Lemmy clients that's going on, it's really awesome and great to see.
But if Apollo was released for Lemmy, I'd subscribe to Ultra (or buy lifetime) in a heartbeat and only look at alternatives out of interest, not because I'd want to use them as my main Lemmy client. Apollo was just that good.
Views like this one feel pretty toxic and elitist to me. Let people use Sync if they like it. Let people use their Android phone unrooted if they are fine with it. Heck, let people use Windows if they like it.
I honestly don't see what the problem is. If you prefer FOSS use FOSS apps.
I've tried every single Lemmy app for iOS and Android, but I can honestly say nothing comes close to how smooth and native Sync feels.
I wasn't even a Sync user on Reddit so I didn't understand the hype, but I get it now. On my Pixel 6 Pro all of the other Lemmy apps had some kind of issues, whether that be random crashes or frame rate issues. But Sync is just so smooth and feature rich.
I've also joined the sync discord and the developer is very clear on what type of data he collects (He doesn't, but Google may).
Also with the pricing, if you don't agree with the price that's your opinion, but the amount of complaining is ridiculous. He made the app so whatever he wants to charge is his decision. You can also still freely use the app (with ads) so no one is forcing you to buy.
I couldn't care less if foss app users or developers are butthurt because closed apps are suddenly available and gaining popularity.
Sync for lemmy landed and it has been more stable and has more features than any of the other lemmy apps I've tried.
Maybe if the foss apps were stable and feature rich more casual plebs like me would use them, but at the moment they all feel kind of broken.
Also, I would take issue with jerboa here. Jerboa is there but not Connect? Lol...
I'm anti mega corporations with consolidated power and platform monopolies. I'm not anti small distributed devs getting paid for high quality hard work.
I tried Sync, and it didn't scroll smoothly on my phone. So, I went back to Summit, which has been great.
But here's an idea: let's not get gatekeepy with apps. Use what you like. Freedom of choice is one major component of FOSS.
Let's face it. How many of us have actually contributed enough to any FOSS projects to demand for free and premium services. I personally would rather donate to a FOSS app instead of paying Sync, but it's unfair to judge Sync for having ads and trackers when the option of removing them is there. There's nothing wrong with any dev wanting to make a decent living or even more than that, as long as they don't go overboard and are honest about it.
Wtf, this isn't about which app is better it's about variety! The fact sync is part of a list of options is what makes fediverse great - seems everyone in the comments agree 🤷♂️ gtfo with this sync hate. I'm a big Boost fan myself but im stoked sync is finally ready for those that've been waiting for it! 🥳
Lol I love how some people share their subjective opinions and call it "the truth".
At the end of the day, software developers need to eat. If they get to eat because their compensation model is driven by donations either before or after you use the app, who cares?
(Fair enough FOSS is free as in freedom, not just as in free beer, but I think that is moot to a lot of people, as long as the market space isn't crushed by anti-competitive buisness practices)
The bigger issue at hand here is negotiating fair API uses for instances and their admins, who also need to eat, and make the apps possible too.
Lemmy will never succeed if every community is filled with meta posts about lemmy.
More options is better for the community
I'm a huge FOSS guy. I'd support any of the FOSS apps if they were anywhere close to as good and polished as Sync already is. Sorry.
Gotta be honest, sync is the first lemmy client I've tried that seems to work without any issue...
Tried all the apps and none of them is polished and smoother as sync. If tracking is the issue then one time purchase disables everything. The sdk isn't even loaded after the purchase. One time purchase is available. For people who want to support they can use the subscription service. For those people who want foss free apps, then another set of apps are available.
What a miserable take.
You're sad that a good app came out for lemmy? Does it prevent other apps from working?
Sync is a fantastic app, the fact that I get to use it again is what drew me here, not Lemmy itself
There was something that just felt wrong about the sync app thread in one of the lemmy.world communities. Just post after post of "yay, it's like having reddit back again." Reddit can fuck off. I like the novelty and slight roughness around the edges.
It's more having a familiar app back, the look and feel of it all it's so familiar to me that it's great to have back. And it feels better than liftoff in my opinion
Truth is..... Many FOSS lacks significant polish and features as... Well it's free. I don't mind paying for a quality product
The developer works full time for the app, even when it was a Reddit client. If you guys can't view an ad every once in a while to support something you use daily, then delete your Lemmy account. Nobody eats for free.
I don't understand the issue here?
You want open source and free software. You get that with a developer trying to make a living to improve upon a product like Jerboa. Jerboa works but by comparison to Sync it is rough. By rough I mean the UI is not the best, it needs way more time and polish not only looks nice but has extra features and functions to make it stand out.
With something like Jerboa you would donate money by choice but if your argument is free and open source you need to donate more money to support that.
Sync is popular because its closed source makes it harder to break the security aspect if you don't have all the access to source code. It is popular because it was a great app for Reddit and had that advantage. You know what people did to help the developer make a living and put more time into it? They supported it willingly by paying for extra features to help the dev and get more out of the money they were willing to spend.
I understand free and open source APIs being available and wanting more free and open source software to stay that way to make all things free and open. So support the apps you appreciate being free by willingly providing money which in return makes them not free.
If you want things to get better somewhat you invest in them. If they go belly up well then it was a bad investment. Sync is a fantastic app and it has the edge because it has a good developer and has had a good community who pays for it and supports it because things you love you will support. If you are a good developer you give more for that money provided.
The PS Mini literally used an emulator to play games. A free open source emulator that you could find. People still paid for a console that charged to use that open source software. Why? Because they loved gaming at home and the product.
I will pay for Sync because it makes a product better. A product that makes a newcomer leave Reddit and find Lemmy. An app that provides familiar and easy to use features. An app that has the edge that can make Lemmy a smoother experience. Just because something charges money, which by the way is an optional choice, and just because something is close sourced which by the way tends to be more secure doesn't make the product bad. It can bring more into the community.
If your issue with Lemmy isn't that it's FOSS but your issue with other platforms is that they run poorly or they need more polish well then you are arguing against yourself.
