Fossify Beta Channels on F-Droid

[bigboipete]

With the last Fossify Notes update, I realized that it's delivered by its Beta Channel on F-Droid. My expectation was, that all Fossify Apps are somehow mature and release-ready. In the repos on GitHub there is no Beta indication at all - at least not obvious for me.

Did I just miss that Beta status of earlier releases or is there any other reason behind that?

If you check F-Droid for Fossify apps, there are several apps on their Beta channel, like Launcher, Paint, Notes and Clock.

Launcher is inconsistent, because if you do a search for "Fossify" on F-Droid, Launcher is titled with "Fossify Launcher Beta", but if you open the search entry it says "Fossify Launcher".

Or is this "just" a glitch on F-Droid side?

[naveensingh]

My expectation was, that all Fossify Apps are somehow mature and release-ready.

Unfortunately, that is not true. To be transparent about this 'readiness', I'm labelling some of the Fossify apps as beta due to known or unknown issues that may be critical. Here are some examples:

• [bug] alarms/timers sometimes don't get triggered at all Clock#89
• Repetitive crashes, unsets itself as default launcher Launcher#6
• App is unlocked without password after screen rotation Notes#97
• Recordings are not as long as they should be Voice-Recorder#81

Here's the list of apps that are not yet considered stable (or app design/functionality is subject to change):

• Clock
• Calculator
• Camera
• Keyboard
• Launcher
• Notes
• Paint
• Voice Recorder

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Or is this "just" a glitch on F-Droid side?

Most likely. I could not reproduce this glitch.

[bigboipete]

@naveensingh Thanks for the quick reply.

Where are these Beta labels placed? Here on GitHub? I did look at some possible places, but couldn't find them. Maybe I'm not fully familiar with all the options GitHub offers.

If you say, you can't reproduce the glitch, you mean, you don't see the "Beta" in the titles of the provided F-Droid links in my first post?

[naveensingh]

Where are these Beta labels placed? Here on GitHub?

Every repository has metadata (e.g. title, description, screenshots) for F-Droid and Google Play. Specifically, the title.txt file is simply updated to reflect the beta status. It's not a separate beta channel.

I did look at some possible places, but couldn't find them. Maybe I'm not fully familiar with all the options GitHub offers.

Sorry, this change wasn't announced. I didn't think it would affect that many people, but clearly, I thought wrong.

If you say, you can't reproduce the glitch, you mean, you don't see the "Beta" in the titles of the provided F-Droid links in my first post?

I mean, I see 'Fossify Launcher Beta' everywhere on F-Droid. The app title is not translated into other languages, so maybe what you are experiencing is a locale-related issue. Maybe clear your browser/app cache?

[Aga-C]

The last update of Launcher was released before removing the old title from locales. That's why in German, Polish, and maybe also other languages it's still "Fossify Launcher" instead of "Fossify Launcher Beta".

[naveensingh]

The last update of Launcher was released before removing the old title from locales. That's why in German, Polish, and maybe also other languages it's still "Fossify Launcher" instead of "Fossify Launcher Beta".

Ah, that makes sense. I'll fix this now.