this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
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Since a few folks seem unaware of this, I'm posting anew for visibility.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

But they promised that they won't use the data for it ๐Ÿ˜œ

They paid millions for it just for charity

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Lawnchair is a fork of the original pixel launcher that gives some quality of life upgrades to an already good piece of software, like being able to remove the search bar, resizable / reshapable icons and fonts usw. Its also open source, so feel free to check out the github.

There is no app store release right now but they are working on it. I've used the alpha versions for two years now and it has worked fine so far.

https://lawnchair.app/downloads/

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Well damn. I've been on Nova launcher for years. Even bought prime and all that.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Are there comparable alternatives? I never found another launcher that I like as much.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Free - Lawnchair | Kvaesisto
Paid - Niagara Launcher

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I switched to Lawnchair 2. It's free, open source and quite versatile. Probably not as much as Nova, though it's been a few years since I last used it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Lawn chair is the main FOSS alternative.

Be aware that there is a play store version that is not updated (version 2) and a beta that is actively maintained (version14.2 now)

They are quite different.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Anyone here not using an open source launcher after this announcement is seriously learning nothing from this. You are just trusting the next company that either already or eventually will go the same way. Like the dude mentioning Microsoft launcher as alternative, that one has branch analytics baked in as well as far as I remember.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Be aware that using open source doesn't protect you completely from this, look at what happened to Simple Mobile tools, best install your open source applications from f-droid.

Do you have any good open source alternatives for Nova Launcher?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Of course, but when something like that happens to a popular app there will be an outcry. If you are not a tech person you might miss that, but I'd argue if you care about what launcher your phone has and you care about this issue to go foss you are probably the type of person who'd hear about it.

I use KISS launcher but there are many other options mentioned here that are also good. Yes, nothing is exactly like Nova. But lots of other stuff is good too.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

When that first happened I switched to KISS Launcher. Fully search based. really simple and really fast.

[โ€“] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

Had an old, barely living phone. Tried very hard to die on sole fact it had to display icons. KISS actually made it usable once again. ^^

[โ€“] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

If you aren't paying, you're the product.

Microsoft Windows addendum: even when you pay, you're the product.

PS: I know this goes for more than M$. They're just the easy target here on Lems.

[โ€“] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

Honestly, don't care. Until it gets shitty (which it still has a good chance of doing so), I'll continue to use it.