Open-source apps are consistently better than the average closed source app on the playstore (opinion)

sunglocto@lemmy.zip to Android@lemmy.world – 139 points –

Has anyone noticed that apps on F-Droid or that you just get from GitHub are just better than the ultra-popular apps on the play store? Most of them are open source and have no ads or trackers. But this isn't true on the Play Store at all.

I see myself always getting apps from F-Droid now because there is always an alternative to the ad-infested bloated privacy infesting BS that I find on the play store. It's unfortunate that it's gotten this bad, where the only reason I even use the play store is to install updates or games.

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Many are functionally better and of course don't have any ads, but often look utterly terrible, unfortunately.

If it was just looks. Usually the UX is simply not very good. We need more designers in the FOSS space.

Yup. This is the exact problem I have with them. Most apps look kind of outdated, finding one with nice UI/UX is like finding gold.

It's true, any developer in any space knows that core functionality is often built quickly, while refinement and beautification can swallow up enormous amounts of time.

Combined with my experience being that the dev guy and the UI/design guy are rarely the same person, and the former is way more inclined to create things for fun and give them away.