MDroid — Open-source F-Droid client

A new client for F-Droid, written in Javascript with React-Native & Redux.

TL;DR: I started developing MDroid 2 weeks ago as a side project when I saw that a new version (v1.0) of the client was released.

In fact that new version adds some awesome features like the ability for repo managers to localize data into multiple languages, or to provides screenshots of the app.

What was less cool in fact was the new UI. Yep, F-Droid v1.0 came with an entierly new UI that aims to be more “user-friendly”. But guess what? I hate it. That’s not finished and do not looks as polished as a FOSS App Store deserves.

Introducing MDroid, a new F-Droid client that aims to bring back Material Design to the FOSS App Store. It tries to follow the Material specs as much as possible and I’m spending my days refactoring the code again and again in order to get the best performances possible.

MDroid is a sort of F-Droid clone, it’s the same but it’s totally different.

Let me explain. You can fetch repositories, as F-Droid. You can browse apps and categories, as F-Droid.

Where is MDroid totally different then, may you ask?

MDroid is different because it’s built using React Native, a pretty cool framework I felt in love recently, as it allows me to get more work done faster, with cool features such as live/hot reloading, redux, etc.

It’s a cool tech that allows to iterate faster.

MDroid currently lets you browse apps’ categories, view app’s details, install/uninstall/launch an app, manage your F-Droid repositories, search for your apps thanks to the blazing fast search screen. See related apps, and apps from the same author (or the same category). And much more.

So don’t be affraid and jump on the wagon, you can check the source code on the MDroid GitHub repository and you can be my Patron to help me spending more time on that cool project. Aside from that, spread the word, also the world!

Enjoy guys, enjoy! :)

Oh and I was going to forgot, you can download MDroid latest APK via the releases from the repository.

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Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors

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