I’ve tried pretty much all the FOSS Lemmy apps I could get my hands on but the experience Sync provides is far superior. I’m an ex Boost user and since I couldn’t find Boost for Lemmy I naturally gravitated towards Sync and I’m not looking back.
Sync definitely is far superior. $2 and change per month is more than reasonable to keep developing an app I use so much.
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Everybody spies. Its not possible to maintain my privacy 100% and still keep the same QoL
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Boost is making a comeback on lemmy soon too in case you weren’t aware
Yeah, that’s what I’ve been waiting for. But with Sync ready and so many other free options, I’m worried that by the time it comes out, I’ll already have transitioned to something else. Have you heard anything about an ETA for the app?
This discourse in these comments is stupid. People can complain about Sync if they have something to complain about. It’s a fucking forum. Personally I hate the idea of restricting features and using ads to get people to pay, especially when I have several FOSS apps that work perfectly for me, I don’t think Sync feels any more “slick”.
There, that’s my opinion. I don’t like Sync and I’m not attacking anyone for using it.
People can complain about Sync if they have something to complain about.
Okay. I have something to complain about, too. It’s people complaining too much about Sync.
Well I’d like to complain about people complaining about people complaining about Sync >:)
I get complaining about the price, I get being a FOSS diehard, but there are are a handful of accounts that are so insanely mad about Sync and commenting/posting about it so much that they genuinely can’t be mentally well.
They aren’t using ads to “get people to pay” they’re using ads to pay for people who don’t want to pay
Yes, the ads make a little money. But it’s still a problem you create then sell the solution to. It’s at least half the reason to do ads.
Not really. The alternative is charging for the app in the first place, but if you do that your app fails. You include ads to help pay for development and ongoing expenses.
Offering a subscription to remove them for those that want to is secondary to that. Very few people actually subscribe to anything at all unless they absolutely have to. You’d be surprised to learn how few users actually pay to remove ads–like oftentimes less than one percent
That’s not the only alternative.
Do bless me with your knowledge, then. Donations don’t work. You don’t want ads. You don’t want subscription fees. People hate paying for apps.
There is no other option other than working for free.
Donations work. The dev clearly has many loyal fans willing to pay. Look at Jerboa/Lemmy’s donation pages. It’s good money.
Besides this I’m not even saying the dev shouldn’t do it. I’m just explaining that I don’t like it.
I gladly donate to FOSS software devs because the product never forces me to log in for a feature or get a key or see an ad. The app doesn’t get any of the bloat required to do that stuff either. I just don’t want to use Sync and it’s not because I’m cheap
It’s good money.
The Lemmy dev is making around 30k a year. Subtract taxes from that and he’s making maybe 25k (at best).
They’re very clearly extremely talented software engineers, and you’re telling me $12 an hour is “good money”? That’s not even above minimum wage in many US states! Do you have any idea how much software engineers make?
Ye, I loved Sync for Reddit, bought pro and dev even, but current Sync monetization is insane enough to alienate me.
Whatever people want to use do not concern me.
Youtube premium is $2/month in my country, sync is one time $25… Would have to say it’s kinda expensive and not buying it anytime soon.
I fully agree! I have no idea why would I need to pay $20 for an app when I have a bunch of alternatives that I like even more. Welp, I even like to use a browser instead of an app sometimes. But people are excited and are going to Lemmy, which is a good thing
No one says you need to, in fact you don’t, but many people keep bitching like they are forced to.
Which open source app do you feel is just as slick as sync? Genuine question. I’d be happy to support a FOSS app, but all that I found had weird issues and quirks, and/or janky UI. Liftoff was the best I’d found but again, buggy and janky.
I’m still just using Jerboa. It was buggy when I first used it but a few updates later it does it all fine.
It’s the cost, not the idea taking people back.
Product is king.
Inertia is also in play.
Sync for Lemmy is built by the same guy that built sync for Reddit. Built using seemingly a lot of the same code.
I bounced between all the open source apps and have started using sync for Lemmy because it’s familiar and it works. It also seems to be much faster than the others, maybe due to more aggressive caching/prefetching? Or that could be a placebo effect.
I was always having weird issues with jebora and the rest of them, and was not a fan of Voyager’s interface.
I might try connect, jebora, etc again a bit later. Might also purchase the one time and remove for sync, might donate to Lemmy instances, etc.
For now I’m just glad to have a familiar interface.
Don’t worry voyager I’ll never leave you and captain Janeway
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You can support FOSS devs, too.
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I installed both Sync and Infinity on the same day and I’ve mostly used Infinity since, I just don’t get the fuss about Sync, I think it’s only nostalgia from its Reddit users tbh (I used Boost for Reddit fwiw).
Yeah, because why should app developers get paid, right? They should all code for free at their local public library. Maybe live in a big ceramic jar like Diogenes.
“Free” as in “freedom”, not price. There’s nothing stopping somebody from making money on FOSS.
Goddam Richard Stallman really screwed the PR up on that one with the “free” thing.
The F in FOSS stands for free, IIRC. The ability to access, use, share the code, etc. has more to do with the open source part of the acronym. I haven’t really seen anyone complain about Sync being closed sourced so far… Just that you have to pay not to see ads.
Ive only ever seen FOSS developers get support through donations. Which is nice and all, but likely not enough for an independent developer like ljdawson to survive on alone.
Dont get me wrong, I like FOSS apps too, but the experience almost always suffers to some degree; its easy to see why. I just don’t get why Sync is being singled out like some kind of evil tech monopoly lately. As far as I can tell, its just an individual developer who released a great app for free (yes with ads, you’re the product, blah blah blah) with an optional lifetime payment to disable ads completely.
Free refers to freedom, not price. No part of “FOSS” has anything to do with money or price.
Well then what’s the issue? Because every complaint I’ve seen so far has been about the optional monetary facet.
I think people are complaining about ads because ads imply tracking. I don’t know, I use Jerboa because I value the four freedoms, I’m not out here protesting non-free apps because the free apps work well enough for me.
AFAIK the way ad revenue works is dependent on trackers. Paying to remove ads on Sync also removes all trackers according to many people who have tested it; still seems to come down to not wanting to pay the developer.
Which is fine, of course. I just think framing the app as sketchy or something is completely misguided.
Are Sync Free and Sync Paid Edition separate apps? Because if not, you still have some ad publishers framework on your phone and running. I’d guess it’s Google, which means play services are required. That’s a big no-go for degoogled Linux users.
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It’s more a limitation of the english language… No distinction between free as in beer or free as in freedom… We’re stuck with the same word
Okay, I won’t push you from Sync. But if you have the money to remove its ads, please also consider supporting Lemmy directly or indirectly (Mozilla, among other things, funded the effort to find and patch TootRoot before it became a problem). If you don’t want to just donate, switching to Mozilla VPN will also help.
You can have both!
In my experience you can have:
- Good app that is free with ads,
- Good app that is paid without ads,
- Shit to mediocre app that is free without ads.
I’ve tried many alternatives, but so far the intuitiveness and beautiful UX of Sync stand apart from the competition for me. I respect FOSS apps, and even prefer them in some cases. But let’s not pretend that its the best approach for every developer, or that anyone who releases a non-FOSS app is automatically greedy or sketchy.
Jebora for the Win!
Don’t let anyone pressure you into trying (or not trying) different apps if you have one you like. Sync happens to be the one that resonated with me the most, but other people won’t feel the same.
Seeing the Sync for lemmy pricing, I just sent 20 USD to the Lemmy/Jerboa devs for offering all this for free!
I think the “hot take” that needs to be said here - and surprisingly I have not come across it yet - is that it’s totally fine if you’re willing to pay 20 dollars for the app.
However, please remember that the app itself is not self contained. It relies on the hard work of the Lemmy developers and the instance you use staying online. Please consider sending them some money as well down the line. If you get the app for 20 dollars as a one time payment, maybe some future payments - even if considerably smaller - can go towards the latter.
I did the opposite. The moment I saw Sync for Lemmy available to download I installed it and immediately purchased Ultra because bless LJ for making the superior app. He deserves getting paid for his work. And it’s not like he requires you to pay for the app. It’s free for everyone, you just get some additional features if you are willing to pay and by doing that you also support the developer. So I decided to support him. I’ve been using Sync for Reddit before and I knew I needed this app for Lemmy. Now I feel home.
It is not free if I pay with my data.
Shut up, don’t use it if you don’t want to.
Lmao wow so defensive. Haven’t seen this type of behaviour since I left reddit
Defensive? I’m literally asking people to not judge others. I don’t care about Sync and I don’t use it, I’m on Connect.
Is there a FOSS app that has the *peeking"-feature? (Long pressing a picture to get full size preview) That feature has been an absolute game changer to me.
I’ve been happy with Liftoff.
I was happy with connect. Then I craved for foss. Now I’m torn between summit, thunder and arctius (formerly fennec)
Btw slide for lemmy just dropped. It still lacks community blocking. But it’s nice, similar to lift off.
Isn’t summit proprietary?
I believe it is foss. But you can verify it if you like.
https://github.com/idunnololz/summit-for-lemmy/blob/main/LICENSE
the page on github only has the icon and the APKs, there is no source code. Perhaps the Apache licence is only applied to the icon? I don’t know… alternativeto.net marks it as proprietary
Ok, so there’s no definitive answer.
But nevertheless, I’ve been tinkering with infinity for lemmy and I think I will choose this as my main app for the moment.
In fact I am replying to you using infinity. I really do enjoy this app after I’ve finished customizing it, the settings took me more than 30 minutes because of the sheer number of combinations I had to try.
But after I finished setting up, it is a joy to use.
I’m also a huge believer in open source. I’m using Infinity for Lemmy right now but I gladly paid for the ad removal in Sync. It genuinely is the best Lemmy app out right now. It just works and has so many customization options. Not to mention, since Sync uses Google for ads, when you remove the ads, the ad component isnt initialized so you remove the tracking. So nothing to worry about there either. 20$ lifetime for such an awesome app is totally fair for me. That’s my opinion, you are free to disagree.
Wefwef/voyager all the way Ü
