From the next month, I am going to start a new blog series where I’ll be reviewing various open source Android applications. This idea came to my mind because a lot of readers here are using Android devices and I am already reviewing a lot of applications as part of my new project, Android Debloat List. The applications do not necessarily have to be free and open source (FOSS), but open source is a requirement for now.

Aspects I’ll be covering

I generally review an application in many different aspects. For example:

  1. Initial impression of the project. This involves terms of service (TOS), End user license agreement (EULA), software and source code licenses, contributors license agreement (CLA), transparency of decision making and funding, documentations, identity of the maintainers, etc.
  2. Initial impression of the software. This includes the default user interface, libraries and framework used, expected size versus actual size of the APK files, and so on.
  3. User experience. This includes verbosity of features, design choices (use of buttons, bottom sheets, etc.), common software engineering problems, bugs, etc. This will be full of personal opinions, of course. But this blog is my personal blog anyway.
  4. Privacy and security aspects. Network activities, use of trackers, vulnerable libraries, maintenance, update frequency, stability, security policy, use of permissions, etc. I will also provide a few suggestions where applicable based on my years of experience as a developer as well as other guidelines such as CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) and OWASP. But they will be far from perfect.

…and others such as, its potentials or worthiness in the future, or how capable it is in replacing other well known apps, or how it may not be better than some less known apps.

My reviews will contain both praise and criticisms. However, the state of open source development hasn’t improved much in the past few years compared to the amount of new open source apps. So, you should not expect much of a praise from me, and readers should avoid disturbing the maintainers of the reviewed apps by asking them to implement everything I suggest in my reviews. You can, of course, link my reviews and ask their opinion of my reviews and suggestions, but not more than that.

I shall review at most two to three apps per month because reviewing an app is not easy. If a major version of an app is released after its review, I will write another review instead of amending the existing one to allow archiving.

Finally, as I said above, reviewing is not easy, but I am going to do this anyway because I want to prove a few points:

  1. Open source projects often are not as open as people think they are.
  2. Most open source apps do not have any security model, some maintainers do not even understand security aspects of their own apps.
  3. Most open source developers do not care about privacy either.
  4. Many open source projects aren’t even open source in first place.
  5. Why we need an open source alliance instead of fighting each other.

If you have your favourite app to be reviewed, or if you’re a developer interested in my opinion regarding an app that you built, you can comment on GitHub or send me an email. I will try to review it if I find it interesting. (Again, do not expect much praise!)

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