Onec again the “Everything that’s not FOSS will turn to shit at one point or another” theorem proves true.
And if a FOSS project turns into shit a fork will come up.
One perfect example was simple apps acquisition. New owners turned it a ad ridden mess, fossify apps fork came to the rescue.
I recommend Kvaesitso, very snappy with lots of functionality.
Am I just not seeing it or do they not seem to allow icons on the desktop?
That’s my second favorite after Smart Launcher
Fuck. I bought this forever ago, either for my Droid 2 or my Galaxy S3. Skipped it on my first Pixel and came back on the Pixel 7.
Haven’t really heard any talk about it, didn’t know about the owner/dev drama until seeing some comments here.
Haven’t noticed any ads myself yet, but maybe that’s a “coming soon” thing.
Time to go launcher shopping again. This thread mentioned Lawnchair and Niagara, so I’ll check those out first.
I’m using Niagara in the free tier and I’m very happy with it. it’s snappy and good looking and I spend so little time hunting through my apps for the ones I need thanks to the favorites section on the home screen. good stuff
But I don’t wanna redesign my nice app tray and home screen. Can I just never update it?
That’s my plan…
This used to be my favorite piece of software I paid for. Then… 💩
Thanks for this post, I quickly turned off auto-updates 👀
I only started using it half a year ago, but it was still the best from all the launchers I’ve tried 😔
i like lawnchair launcher :3
Thats why you want open source software, its the only software you can trust, its the only software that won’t fuck you over
Except when it goes from open source to closed lol
Until these mfs relicense their sht and we have to fork
at least forking is an option you can choose, and someone else with decent reputation in the foss community will probably also do it before you, instead of just accepting being fucked up the ass with no lube for the third time this week
They got a new owner years ago. No one should still be using it. Lawnchair has been great for me.
I picked up Lawnchair when I de-googled my phone a bit more than a year ago. There were a couple launchers I considered, but honestly the name is what sold me. And I haven’t missed Nova since.
Holy shit the screenshots on Play store are depressing
You want to use one of the much more recent nightly or beta builds.
Can you remove the search bar at the bottom of the home screen?
Yeah, that’s what I do. It’s fully customizable.
Hm maybe I’ll try it out.
I ducked off the Nova train with their fishy new owners a few months ago. My one complaint about Lawnchair is that the search function is slower and less effective, otherwise it’s great!
If anyone is looking to try something new - I really enjoyed
WaterfallNiagra after dropping Nova.+1 for Niagra. It takes a few days to get used to but it’s the launcher every power user didn’t know they wanted. Lifetime purchase options and a very responsive/passionate dev
Seconded. Looks good and I’ve found browsing by letter is way faster than the traditional folders (although you can still use folders with premium). I bought the upgrade after a few months.
I used to use lawnchair. Good reason to switch back.
Made the switch last year. Have had no issues,especially now that you can do folders.
I’m getting really tired of companies pissing all over my name!
Shouldn’t have tried to disassemble Johnny 5.
No disassemble!
No disassemble!
time to go super…
Seems like all of our concerns have come true. I’m glad I switched earlier when the main dev bounced.
Been using Smart Launcher and haven’t looked back.
I also liked Niagara too.
Upvote for Smart Launcher
Smart Launcher
Is it OSS? If not I wont bother anymore
I dropped them back then too. I have been using lawn chair and I really like it. Could have a few more options but still quite nice
I wanted to like lawn chair and gave them an honest try but so many features I have come to rely on weren’t quite there.
I realize that they were designed as a replacement of pixel’s launcher but still… I would have loved to keep using them.
I am now using a paid version of Smart Launcher and praying to God that they won’t do what Nova did.
It already had a new owner which is why I stopped using it years ago.
Up until today I was happy with turning off updates (as a precaution) and restricting Nova’s internet access (all phone network access is proxied through Rethink+), but this made me switch to Lawnchair and leave a 1-star review for both the free version and the paid upgrade token.
That’s capitalism we all know consumers demand adds overloading everything. /s
I ditched them years ago after they got bought out the first time.
