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So what is Shizuku? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Repost because I posted to the wrong community :)

I haven’t really kept up with android stuff for a while, but it looks like a handful of recent FOSS apps are using Shizuku for cool functionality. The new SDMaid uses it, and so do apps like Lemmy Redirect. In the list of apps, there’s also F-Droid, but I don’t really know what that’s for just yet.

What is it, and how does it work? Does it allow you to do anything you could otherwise need a Rooted device for? In that sense, is it unsafe / something Google will try to block in the future?

https://github.com/ThePBone/awesome-shizuku

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Note that it is, however, unfree software, not FOSS:

For the project as a whole, it is not free. You are FORBIDDEN to distribute the apk compiled by you (including modified, e.g., rename app name "Shizuku" to something else) to any store (IBNLT Google Play Store, F-Droid, Amazon Appstore etc.).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The readme says licensed under Apache-2.0. The license itself allows modification and redistribution with some conditions. unless only parts of the source code are free. It should not be forbidden just because he says so. He does say image files may not be used unless for displaying shizuku. Regardless, it leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The readme also states that you are not allowed to distribute built artifacts and that makes it unfree.

Free software OTOH must allow you to do anything you want with the covered software as long as you fulfil the duties the license requires of you.
See for instance requirement 3 of the OSI's Open-Source Definition.

I've opened a discussion on this topic upstream with more thorough explanations and alternatives: https://github.com/RikkaApps/Shizuku/discussions/359