I did a poll and nearly 30% of the people who voted said they used Sync! It's stayed around that percent the whole time too!
EDIT: Here is the poll I forgot to put this here like five times lol https://strawpoll.com/wby5A21R1yA
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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Sync for Lemmy
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Like Lemmy is to Reddit, FOSS clients are to paid alternatives.
The only way I can see to stay clear of business practices I don't like is to support the FOSS model.
I'm not saying Sync isn't a good client, or that the dev has anything other than the best intersts of his users in mind, it's that at any point a decision can be made which you have no control over. Service models for software, for example, very rarely seems to be in the users interests.
Give the FOSS clients a shot, they are also constantly improving!
I installed both Jerboa and Liftoff and ended up on Sync.
I run Linux and 99% foss software on PC and same on phone.
Sync was the only android client I tried that was usable. The keyboard bug in jerboa was maddening
You could try out Eternity. It's a fork of Infinity for Reddit and has great UI/UX design. Though not using latest M3 design guidelines it's lightyears ahead of Liftoff, Thunder, etc. imo (which I couldn't stand personally - tastes vary ofc!)
You can get Eternity from F-droid when you enable the IzzyDroid Repository (included in droid-ify, a much better fdroid client than the official one)
Just installed it. Long time infinity user, now a jerboa user after the switch.
Eternity looks great! The biggest issues I had with other apps is the unchangable Instagram layout where even with a log phone I can see maybe 1 post at a time. Then I also like seeing the community icon to know where the post is.
Compacter comments where you can easily see levels, but it doesn't load every child comment all the time at once. Both jerboa and eternity are the only FOSS apps that fit that bill ๐
I was similar with Jerboa first then Sync despite being mostly a Bacon user at Reddit. I tried Sync just before the Hoopla started.
I found the sensitive swipe gestures of Jerboa difficult as there was no way to turn them off so when Sync came along it became the default for me as the swipe features don't cause as issue for me.
I'm android and went through about 1 month of switching between clients to find the one I liked the most. Connect was the winner for me. Multiple accounts, hide read, good default UI amongst a handful of other things
I may have xome later to both, I find either very usable + no ads
What keyboard bug? I haven't run into it, and I've been using it for months.
idk if the other commenter experienced the same bug as I did, but for me, deleting characters in the comment text box would also delete the last space. So, for example, if I typed "idk if the other commenzr", and I started deleting the 'r' and then 'z', the text would turn into ""idk if the othercommen". It would just keep going like that. Otherwise Jerboa is fantastic though, but it get's annoying fast.
Yeah that's the one
If you type a word then backspace to correct spelling it removes the space from the word before it. Basically smooshing everything together
This is true for any software you didn't write. Plenty of FOSS software has gone in directions I didn't like.
The only real difference is whether decision makers have a profit motive. That's important, but that said, it's not everything.
And at any time you or someone else who is likewise pissed off can fork the software and put it straight
That's really not a valid argument for 99% of users. I'm not going to fork FOSS software because I'm an adult and have a full time job. I don't have the time to learn about the inner workings of the software to fix it. Most users are less tech savvy than myself, anyways. Saying "just fork it and fix it to your liking" to the average person is not realistic.
If you're not happy with the software there's a good chance others are also dissatisfied and van make the chage, this happens all the time. Perhaps some of them are children without a full time job and don't mind spending time understanding something ;-) The point I'm making is that the users of the software have an additional option not available to closed source software.
There's a big difference which is that clients have minimal lock in. Reddit has a monopoly over the community while you can easily switch clients with little lost.
But switching clients means wasting your time learning a different app and getting used to different UI. I wouldn't like to switch from Connect at this point even though it's a bit buggy so I think client does matter a lot. Reddit APIcalypse was all about clients and if I didn't care about the client I would still use Reddit with RedReader. Or if I cared even less I would use Reddit app.
FOSS doesn't solve the need to occasionally switch clients. FOSS is sometimes abandoned or something better comes along.
But I can always use an older APK, at which point I do have control over the changes. I can even inject custom code if I really want to - some people are still using Sync for Reddit with their own API keys.
And you're stuck with potential security issues/missing regulatory chages, lack of new features....
Yes, if I choose to stay on a specific version, I'll be stuck on that version.
But you have the same issue with FOSS apps if they change something I don't want. If you choose to stay on a specific version, you will also be stuck with potential security issues/missing regulatory changes and a lack of new features.