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APK for searching and subscribing to Youtube, Twitch, and more in a single feed (youtu.be)

submitted 1 year ago by skinnerbox@leminal.space to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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I just downloaded and have been loving this. It loads pretty quickly, navigation is intuitive, and I'll finally stop forgetting that Nebula exists because it'll all be in my one big subscription feed.

Since I'm new to moving over to open source, I want to ask the veterans: is this as incredible as it seems right now, or is there something I'm missing?

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[-] jet@hackertalks.com 84 points 1 year ago

The futo temporary license is not very open at all. Yes you can view the source code, but the license can be revoked at any time. So this is basically source available for auditing, but no community should use this code / project to build any modifications, or forks, or anything contributing to the ecosystem.

It's great that futo is innovating, but I want to make it clear its not open source by the standard meaning.

Maybe a better term for this type of "source viewable" closed project would be "source verifiable"

(Duplicating my comment from another thread on this subject)

[-] BaumGeist@lemmy.ml 35 points 1 year ago

I call it "museum source": look, but don't touch

[-] jet@hackertalks.com 8 points 1 year ago

I like it

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[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Came here to say the same thing. The license isn't good at all. What this 100% lead to is, if they succeed with their goals, and a couple years down the line have become the de-facto way to consume content, they will follow the enshittification route. They will close their source and start extracting payment from the creators to be listed or promoted. We've seen this game so many times. Just recently terraform also closed their source, but at least the terraform developers could fork it. You won't be able to do so with this app.

I am all for a software that does the same thing but is fully FOSS. This is the only way to get out of the enshittification loop we're stuck in.

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[-] Robmart@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

"Viewable source" is the correct term I believe.

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[-] N4CHEM@lemmy.ml 65 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Am I the only one who is put off by the way this is presented? It might be a great app, I'm not judging that, but seeing it shared in Lemmy via a hype YouTube video ("we made something amazing, wow!") makes me wary. No objective text description, no link to their project website. Not even a name in this post!

It was the same 2 weeks ago when people were sharing the same kind of hype video about their speech-to-text tool (which they called a "Voice app").

Edit: edited text to make clear I was talking mainly about the Lemmy post, not the video (although the video screenshot also looks like clickbait).

[-] Prunebutt@feddit.de 40 points 1 year ago

They do link to the sourde code and the website in the video description.

The lemmy post could be better, though.

[-] N4CHEM@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

Yes, I was taking about the Lemmy post. I didn't open the video link (for the reasons explained above). Thanks for sharing this info.

[-] Prunebutt@feddit.de 34 points 1 year ago

Here'rs the project page

Here's the sourge code repo

Louis Rossman is usually legit, but I definetly understand your wearyness. OP should do better.

[-] N4CHEM@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Thank you. Yes, I cannot judge the app, but the post (and the screenshot of the video) look like low quality clickbait. I would appreciate if we didn't go down that slope and stick to plain, objective information.

[-] lemann@lemmy.one 9 points 1 year ago

Apologies for the silly question - by presented, do you mean this text post here on Lemmy, or the YT video?

If you mean this lemmy post, this is how everyday people share content IMO, it isn't detailed but all the info we need is behind the YT link. OP could also just be excited about the app and thought others already knew about it, like I did but hadn't realised it's out now.

[-] N4CHEM@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

I meant the Lemmy post. Don't apologise, I see that my comment was not very clear.

I know that's how many people share things, but it's not (yet) common in software communities. If I am introducing a new app I will write a description of what it does, add links to its website, source code, developer's site... and finally a video if I have one.

I haven't checked the video, but the screenshot that accompanies this post (We made a better Revanced!) looks like low quality clickbait too.

[-] skinnerbox@leminal.space 6 points 1 year ago

My bad! I'm not super deep in any software community, just an excited app user who wanted to check with you all to make sure it was as good as it seemed before I fully committed to the app and pitched in the optional $9.99.

To be honest I still can't confidently explain what the app does aside from the broad strokes in the title (outside of a little HTML I'm just a disabled author watching shows to pass the time) which is why I linked the video that explained it to me, so I'll run any questions I have for you guys through my coding friend in the future.

Thanks to everyone who looked past it to give their opinions, and sorry for the potential clickbait scare, haha!

[-] PeachMan@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

Holy shit this is great. So it's not FOSS, but it is OSS. And they're not forcing you to pay, they're just asking, without DRM or anything.

I installed it, hooked up my YouTube and Nebula accounts, and it works fine. It's a LOT more stable than I expected. Odyssee works too, and no crashes yet. I immediately paid the $10 for a license. I love the stuff Louis does, and I'm absolutely willing to fund it.

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[-] MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 year ago

Ross man has some really good takes. He’s also kinda annoying and also has some total shit takes. This video was alright but I don’t expect this to last very long. It seems a little sus tbh. Also like others have pointed out, it’s not really open source. That said it’s cool that you can view the source code online.

[-] PeachMan@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It is absolutely open source, simply because the definition of "open source" is vague and poorly defined. That's why we have stricter definitions, like FOSS, and this is definitely not FOSS. They're pretty transparent about that, and they made their reasons clear, whether you like them or not. But GrayJay's source is open; you can audit it, download it, and even compile it yourself if you want. So please don't say it's "not really open source" because that's false.

[-] MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's a good read. But the discussion over the true meaning of open source, foss, libre etc is ongoing and has never been settled so please don't pretend some blog post by richard stallman is the end of the discussion. He's not the one to base your opinions as fact off of. In the first place, open source/libre/foss began largely due to unix v bsd, and opposition to licenses that invite that kind of litigation are properly viewed with suspicion and other even stronger feelings. And it goes without saying that licenses like that are like a landlord promising you he'll fix the shower, get rid of the cockroaches, and fix the leaky ceiling, but only once you've signed the lease.

Aside from that, I'm sure you're aware of how trendy it is to be open source, and how lots of vaporware companies start off with licenses just like this, go proprietary, enshittify and quickly die off, leaving a community built software in the hands of vulture capital.

So it's a good read but it's not the last word, nor does it speak to the actual heart of the discussion

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[-] Klystron@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 year ago

I'm here to link you

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[-] ADHDefy@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I wonder what the full scope of privacy benefits might be here? Obviously, if you log into your account and interact with videos, YouTube will be able to see that--but are you protected from other forms of tracking? If you don't opt to login, how private is it really? With NewPipe, I know it's completely private, whereas with Vanced, there were some inevitable privacy holes. I'm really curious where this application falls in all of that. It'd be nice to see a breakdown of what this app does and does not do for one's privacy.

[-] lemann@lemmy.one 13 points 1 year ago

I think this app focuses more on following creators you support independent of the platform, for me personally it'll likely replace Nebula, Patreon and SoundCloud

Anything privacy related is a big bonus though.

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[-] _hovi_@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Since it's not on F-droid, anybody managed to install this with Obtainium?

Edit: doesn't look like the releases on the gitlab have plain APK files so guess it's not possible with Obtainium? Brand new to it so idk. Not stoked about having to download this from their website

[-] Gamey@feddit.de 13 points 1 year ago

It's not open source (just source available) so idk if it will land in F-Droid at all tbh!

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[-] DefinitelyNotAPenguin@kbin.run 14 points 1 year ago

I have a feeling this isn't gonna stay up for very long once youtube hears about it.

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[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 12 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/5DePDzfyWkw

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[-] YungOnions@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Does this block ads?

[-] cyrodron@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

It does for me

[-] nucleative@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I remember using Trillian to overcome the MSN/AIM/ICQ boondoggle and it didn't take long until all of those hosts started to fight back by complicating their protocols making it hard for the Trillian devs to emulate authentic clients.

The truth is that Youtube doesn't want creators to own their identities because Youtube wants to own the viewers and tell them to watch whatever will make Youtube more money. Kind of the same as why reddit believes it has a moral authority to take over and control a subreddit that was built by a moderator.

Youtube wants viewers to be "Youtubers" not "Mark Rober viewers" or whatever. Otherwise Youtube becomes some kind of free hosting service. But they CAN help new creators get discovered by vast quantities of viewers if they so choose, which they offer hypothetically in return for a piece of the ad revenue which they can secure when the viewers are kept as Youtubers.

Youtube will work hard to break any 3rd party front end such as this one for sure.

Anyways, I hope GrayJay can attract a good following before the platforms figure out how to block them.

The first team or company who figures out how to let content creators own their identities completely - ActivityPub style on their own instances - combined with someone who figures out a compensation/revenue system and a way to drive viewers will probably be the Youtube/Twitch killer.

Actually, now that I think about it, what's the core difference between everyone spinning up a WordPress that's RSS fed into a reader?

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[-] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

This is source available. It is not open source. It is also funded by a tech millionaire. Everything about it is sus.