1
0

mention their basic process

This commit is contained in:
Wonderfall 2022-01-10 10:22:07 +01:00
parent a30537af7e
commit 8acf0f83fe

View File

@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ On the other hand, Play Store now manages the app signing keys too, as [Play App
F-Droid requires that the source code of the app is exempt from any proprietary library or ad service, according to their [inclusion policy](https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Inclusion_Policy/). Usually, that means that some developers will have to maintain a slightly different version of their codebase that should comply with F-Droid's requirements. Besides, their "quality control" offers **close to no guarantees** as having access to the source code doesn't mean it can be easily proofread. Saying Play Store is filled with malicious apps is beyond the point: the **false sense of security** is a real issue. Users should not think of the F-Droid main repository as free of malicious apps, yet unfortunately many are inclined to believe this. F-Droid requires that the source code of the app is exempt from any proprietary library or ad service, according to their [inclusion policy](https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Inclusion_Policy/). Usually, that means that some developers will have to maintain a slightly different version of their codebase that should comply with F-Droid's requirements. Besides, their "quality control" offers **close to no guarantees** as having access to the source code doesn't mean it can be easily proofread. Saying Play Store is filled with malicious apps is beyond the point: the **false sense of security** is a real issue. Users should not think of the F-Droid main repository as free of malicious apps, yet unfortunately many are inclined to believe this.
> But...
[You don't have to take my word for it](https://forum.f-droid.org/t/is-it-as-safe-as-it-is-from-fdroid-official-repo/15956/12): they openly admit themselves it's a [very basic process](https://forum.f-droid.org/t/is-it-as-safe-as-it-is-from-fdroid-official-repo/15956/2) relying on badness enumeration (this doesn't work by the way) and a few scripts. You are not exempted from trusting upstream developers.
> How can you be sure that the app repository can be held to account for the code it delivers? > How can you be sure that the app repository can be held to account for the code it delivers?
F-Droid's answer, interesting yet largely unused, is [build reproducibility](https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Reproducible_Builds/). While deterministic builds are a neat idea in theory, it requires the developer to make their toolchain match with what F-Droid provides. It's additional work on both ends sometimes resulting in [apps severely lagging behind in updates](https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar/-/issues/1612), so reproducible builds are not as common as we would have wanted. It should be noted that reproducible builds in the main repository can be exclusively developer-signed. F-Droid's answer, interesting yet largely unused, is [build reproducibility](https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Reproducible_Builds/). While deterministic builds are a neat idea in theory, it requires the developer to make their toolchain match with what F-Droid provides. It's additional work on both ends sometimes resulting in [apps severely lagging behind in updates](https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar/-/issues/1612), so reproducible builds are not as common as we would have wanted. It should be noted that reproducible builds in the main repository can be exclusively developer-signed.