Iodroid has a great UI and search for category features that make F-Droid much more comfortable to use. It’s really well done.
I know it’s downloadable through the preinstalled apps section for IodéOS users, but making it easier to share with others could help introduce more people to Iodé before making the leap. I think it would be a better alternative to the current F-Droid clients already available on F-Droid.
One small issue I’ve experienced: searching “Keep it” (with space) doesn’t find “Keep It Up,” while “keepit” does. Some categories could also use further refinement.
Thanks for the feedback! Actually the re-design is simply the upstream F-Droid “version 2” client, so it isn’t a custom effort on our part. Here is a brief explanation of the main ioDroid customizations added to this upstream v2 client. I don’t think there are any plans to make it available out iodéOS, as the customizations will only be relevant if iodéOS is the underlying system.
So I do fully endorse thinking through some ways to make iodé better known to users outside the ecosystem, but it is hard to know how / what to suggest (the iodé app relies on the underlying system-level iodé blocker which can’t be installed outside of iodéOS either).
One thing I personally like about iodéOS is that it is very close to upstream LineageOS (interface, apps, etc.). The adjustments to things like the F-Droid client, Firefox, etc. are then “forks” out of mainly necessity, but they are very light forks in my opinion, meaning it is somewhat automated to import the upstream source, apply few commits, and then make the build. The heavy forking that other projects may undertake to give a different user interface, different feature set, etc. require more effort to maintain and may need heavy re-factoring should a larger re-working of the code base happen upstream. Not so with the iodé light forks.
This then comes to bugs and issues: things like searching for “Keep it” and not finding “Keep It Up” in ioDroid is probably best commented on at the upstream F-Droid v2 client base, but it would be good to cross-check against it first to confirm the same shortcoming (there is no problem installing it alongside ioDroid… part of the reason we made the name change to ioDroid so as to not conflict if users want to install upstream F-Droid as well side-by-side).
Thanks for clearing that up. The more time I spend here and see the community’s efforts, the more I understand how iodéOS’s approach of reaching more devices and people through a lighter fork makes sense.
As a consumer, it’s easy to ask for more without realizing how important a practical approach is for long-term maintenance and growth. We’ve seen several major custom ROMs struggle or eventually disband over the years. I’m always grateful that iodé continues to be a strong alternative to big tech.