Where do they say they're considering ads in app? Or you mean with developers including ads in their apps, not in f-droid?

Anyway, I am strongly in support of donationware as the model for compensation of developers. It allows all users to pay what they can whilst not discriminating against those who can't pay.

There's a lot of donationware that receives very substantial donations, and have more money than they would have had had they charged a small flat fee per user. I would never buy software except video games (just because there isn't a particularly expansive foss game suite and pirated games don't automatically update), but I have donated substantially more to foss projects than they could ever charge for their software.

I know free here means freedom not gratis, but I think paywalling software in any way is discriminatory and contrary to promotion of the commons, which is a big part of why I support foss.

I feel it's good and bad at the same time.

Good that you will have an alternative to the play store.

Bad because it erodes trust when money starts being the main motivator to do things.

Isnt the only reason to use f-droid foss apps? Like, if you want shitty apps with ADS and subscriptions, you might as well just use aurora store

I think paid apps are a good idea, in-app payments arent

They should create P-Droid for that. Leave F-Droid as free.

Good. Developers should be paid for their work.

I'm ok with paying for quality foss software, as long as the payment method is available from any country in the world. PERIOD. no exceptions. Not even North Korea should be prohibited from paying.

Ads are a hard turnoff though. There is no place for ads in my world.

This article is about Mobifree https://f-droid.org/en/2024/05/24/mobifree.html As far as I can see F-Droid mentions that it will be a contributing partner :

For more than 14 years, F-Droid has been developing solutions which act as pieces of the alternative mobile ecosystem puzzle. So it was a natural fit for F-Droid to become a contributing partner in the broader Mobifree project.

F-Droid playing a role :

F-Droid will play a major role in this project, tasked with creating a decentralized distribution system for developers to deliver apps to Android users.

Help to create the NGI funded project Mobifree :

F-Droid is one participating organization who has joined forces to help create this new mobile ecosystem. However, additional input, expertise, inspiration and work will be needed in order to break the traditional framework established by Big Tech. From community outreach to legal support, from developers, to researchers and end users, we welcome all forms of support.

I don't read that F-droid will force ads on F-Droid on users any time soon. I can imagine F-Droid will continue to exist as it is but I could be wrong.

i agree with being able to pay devs directly in the store esp with some sort of privacy barrier, i pay, they don't need to know who I am but ads... why why why

Hopefully they rethink this. I think adding a simple donation method for applications within FDroid would be beneficial and would support developers, but creating another for profit market for apps with the shitty subscriptions, paid apps, etc goes against the goals and spirit of FOSS imo

If they want and find it necessary, they can, but I will no more give them support. The donations principle is good, but force them or anything else is really bad. The only way of offering a subscription is when proposing an other service than the app, as example a support with full-time people or an hosted service with their servers...