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FOSS Keyboards @programming.dev recursive_recursion [they/them] @programming.dev

FOSS Android Keyboard Apps

Here's a couple of FOSS keyboard alternatives in no particular order:

Unexpected Keyboard - fdroid

  • GitHub Repo
  • License: GPL-3.0
  • Permissions:

    control vibration
    run at startup

FlorisBoard - fdroid

  • GitHub Repo
  • Apache-2.0
  • Permissions:

    control vibration

Thumb-Key - fdroid

  • GitHub Repo
  • AGPL-3.0
  • Permissions:

    com.dessalines.thumbkey.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

Notable Extra Notes:

I've used Unexpected Keyboard and FlorisBoard and I'd say that they're great introductory FOSS apps for most users (users inexperienced to sudden changes)

  • Unexpected Keyboard uses Nix in their codebase :D

  • Thumb-Key is maintained by dessalines whom is a Lemmy dev

  • Florisboard is starting to convert their codebase to Rust,

    • literally their commit to main yesterday:

      "Switch native code to Rust"

    so this is pretty awesome to see!!

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  • Heliboard https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard

    Fork of Openboard

    • ah unfortunately I had to recently take down a post here that recommended HeliBoard,
      - as that project is in violation of OpenBoard's GPL-3.0 license

      For some unknown reason the developers of HeliBoard decided to multi-license with Apache-2.0 and CC-BY-SA-4.0
      - as I wasn't able to find any information that they received explicit consent from all members of OpenBoard about relicensing/multi-licensing

      Hence I can't recommend anyone using that keyboard app until further information is disclosed
      - afaik multi-licensing GPL-3.0 is only possible with other specific licenses such as AGPL-3.0

      just to double-check I searched online and found this:
      license-compatibility
      > Likewise, CC BY-SA 4.0 explicitly permits relicensing modified versions to GNU GPL version 3, but GPL version 3 does not permit relicensing to CC BY-SA. This issue should never arise for software code; Creative Commons says its licenses are not meant for code, and says that the license to use for code is the GNU GPL. But there are other kinds of works, such as hardware designs or game art, where you might have occasion to merge material released under CC-BY-SA with material released under the GNU GPL. This can be done through CC BY-SA's explicit relicensing permission.

      > Unfortunately, CC BY-SA 4.0 does not permit relicensing to future GPL versions. What you should do, when you relicense material under CC BY-SA 4.0 to the GPL, is specify yourself as a license version proxy to indicate whether future GPL versions have been authorized for that material. If someday there is a GPL version 4 and Creative Commons decides to allow relicensing from CC BY-SA to GPL version 4, you as proxy will be able to retroactively authorize use of that relicensed material under GPL version 4. (Alternatively, you can ask the authors of that material to give permission right away.)

      Edit: I'm blind

    • this is totally a valid suggestion!

      thank you for the comment🤗

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