cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/15242858
Saw Louis Rossmans original video on the app and figured (and it may well have been) it would be buggy and awful at that point. Decided to gike it a try, the app has all the options I could want for watching youtube, it’s multiplatform to a much greater degree than Newpipe and it’s forks.
The reason I don’t ever expect to go back to Newpipe or Libretube is the plugins update through the app, meaning I can get bypasses to YouTubes bullshit as fast as they’re developed.
Newpipe is usually updated quickly, but in my experience forks like Tubular that include sponsorblocks often delay me from getting that update.
Overall, very good experience so far!
The free software definition can be found here:
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
I have no issue paying for software or donating. What concerns me is the restrictions on the source code. I think Grayjay is popular simply because some YouTube star made it.
Or maybe because it’s good? Have you tried the Occam’s Razor thing? You need to realize that by and large, users could not possibly care any less about source code available if you gave them money for it.
And the software has upsides. Compared to NewPipe (what I had before):
- Updates in finite time after Youtube breaks something.
- Can actually log in with your youtube account, directly accessing your subscriptions and so on, instead of having go through the complicated export/unzip/import process every time you change your subscriptions and want to resync them.
- Includes more sources, and pretty heterogenuous ones at that. Nice all-in-one app.
And keep in mind, nobody who is not a gnu cares whether for some hyper-specific context that this post is not in, “free” can mean the sourcecode is freely available. The english language already uses the word “free” in everyday parlour, and if you use english, you know those uses. One of which being “costs you nothing”. Trying to argue around that just makes people less likely to care about source code availability because frankly, you’re being a dick to people for no bloody reason.
I guess you’re unfamiliar with that user but basically their entire Lemmy existence is just arguing with people about the things they own or use because “my thing is better”. They are very active in privacy communities and constantly start pointless arguments by being needlessly oppositional whenever someone dares to recommend or even discuss something that they don’t personally use. I don’t think it’s trolling or bad faith, I think they just genuinely have real difficulty seeing the world from any point of view other than their own. Hence this idea that Grayjay can’t possibly have users because people enjoy using it - there must be some other explanation, like that we’re all Louis Rossmann fans.
I just see Grayjay as an imposter. It is less private and completely bans forking to start a new project.
Take a look at what is now the Fossify app suite. It was Simple mobile tools but that was bought out by some Israel firm. It was forked and is now Fossify mobile tools. The old Simple mobile tools is now not on F-droid.
If Grayjay turns into a scam there is no legal way you can fork it. You are completely locked in. That is my primary concern.
Yeah but every few years technology moves on, anyways. I no longer use the same video client I used 5 years ago on my mobile. Maybe in 5 years I’ll use another. It’s just an app, not a lifestyle. 🤷
