It’s awesome to see Lemmy getting lots of love, and choice in the mobile app space is great for everyone. But some part of me also kind of wishes that rather than spreading so much development effort out over so many mobile apps, that more developers would jump in and contribute to polishing up the official open source Lemmy mobile app, Jerboa. I can’t help but feel that it would be nice to see a focused effort somewhere in bringing that one in particular up to snuff, as a short of “reference” app. And have a few others floating around out there just for some diversity and testing innovative ideas.
Oh yeah for sure, everyone should work on whatever they want without restriction or obligation to be focusing on what someone else wants. And more often than not a pet project is a way to learn a new language or framework with the goal of self-development. That’s a great thing.
It’s just a thought I selfishly have sometimes when I see many apps in development for the same platform, I can’t help but wonder “if all of this effort were focused across fewer apps, could each of those be better than any of these current ones are individually today?” Of course the number of devs contributing to a project has no direct correlation when it comes to the quality or maturity of the product. That’s down to the management, skillset of the devs, etc. I’m well aware of all of that, and the pros and cons of the differences in scenarios.
Just thought I’d share the thought out there. In any case, Lemmy getting all of this attention will no doubt lead to the rise of at least a few solid mobile apps that will stick around and not fizzle out into development neglect within a couple of months.
I really like Jerboa. I’m getting a server version vs. app version pop-up at launch and the odd crash when making a comment or saving a post, but I enjoy the UX a lot issues aside. The list view is 🤌
You’re seeing that toast about versions since backend version 0.18.0 switched away from using a websockets-based API to a REST API, and the Jerboa client app is (in a not-so-descriptive way) warning you that the backend you are connected to isn’t aligned with the app version in terms of what it expects of the backed. This should go away pretty soon as more servers update their backend version and the Jerboa app update hits more devices.
I agree, somewhat, with your sentiment. However, the ‘best’ (I know that’s subjective) apps will arise from a number of factors. My gut tells me that volunteer devs will flock to the repositories where people are enjoying themselves the most.
Oh yeah for sure. It’s just a matter of time. Out of all of these options, some will just fade away (some already have within weeks of initial release), and some will remain and just continue to get better as the development community continues to get a better picture of where all of the action is, and starts to want to be a part of it.
It’s awesome to see Lemmy getting lots of love, and choice in the mobile app space is great for everyone. But some part of me also kind of wishes that rather than spreading so much development effort out over so many mobile apps, that more developers would jump in and contribute to polishing up the official open source Lemmy mobile app, Jerboa. I can’t help but feel that it would be nice to see a focused effort somewhere in bringing that one in particular up to snuff, as a short of “reference” app. And have a few others floating around out there just for some diversity and testing innovative ideas.
Maybe it’s already that way, I don’t know.
Link to f-droid page for Jeroba: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.jerboa/
Similarly, Lemmur: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.krawieck.lemmur/
The Lemmur github says the project is abandoned.
Oops :)
Looks like liftoff is a fork of Lemmur and the development is continuing.
The glory of FOSS! :)
Developers all have their pet frameworks they want to use. Why contribute to a Kotlin app when I can finally learn Dart and Flutter??
Oh yeah for sure, everyone should work on whatever they want without restriction or obligation to be focusing on what someone else wants. And more often than not a pet project is a way to learn a new language or framework with the goal of self-development. That’s a great thing.
It’s just a thought I selfishly have sometimes when I see many apps in development for the same platform, I can’t help but wonder “if all of this effort were focused across fewer apps, could each of those be better than any of these current ones are individually today?” Of course the number of devs contributing to a project has no direct correlation when it comes to the quality or maturity of the product. That’s down to the management, skillset of the devs, etc. I’m well aware of all of that, and the pros and cons of the differences in scenarios.
Just thought I’d share the thought out there. In any case, Lemmy getting all of this attention will no doubt lead to the rise of at least a few solid mobile apps that will stick around and not fizzle out into development neglect within a couple of months.
I really like Jerboa. I’m getting a server version vs. app version pop-up at launch and the odd crash when making a comment or saving a post, but I enjoy the UX a lot issues aside. The list view is 🤌
You’re seeing that toast about versions since backend version 0.18.0 switched away from using a websockets-based API to a REST API, and the Jerboa client app is (in a not-so-descriptive way) warning you that the backend you are connected to isn’t aligned with the app version in terms of what it expects of the backed. This should go away pretty soon as more servers update their backend version and the Jerboa app update hits more devices.
Cool, no prob. Thank you for explaining 👍 will be worth the wait.
I agree, somewhat, with your sentiment. However, the ‘best’ (I know that’s subjective) apps will arise from a number of factors. My gut tells me that volunteer devs will flock to the repositories where people are enjoying themselves the most.
Oh yeah for sure. It’s just a matter of time. Out of all of these options, some will just fade away (some already have within weeks of initial release), and some will remain and just continue to get better as the development community continues to get a better picture of where all of the action is, and starts to want to be a part of it.