What's the use case of Obtainium?

pizzadequeso

I currently have about 50 foss apps and wonder if I should add them 1 by 1 to Obtainium.

My main hesitation is that i can't think of a use case for it, but the app is quite popular, so I wonder if I missed anything.

Droid-ify lets me know when an app has an update, and i do update them from time to time. Many apps I only update when they break, like Newpipe breaks when youtube changes something so i update to keep use it. Other apps like calculator, organic map work well without update so I dont even bother.

So can you tell me, why you use Obtainium?

Novaliss

pizzadequeso This step described in https://wiki.obtainium.imranr.dev/sources/ is the big one, after which Obtainium feels 'unlocked';

Creating a GitHub Personal Access Token

Login to GitHub.

Go to the Fine-grained tokens section in developer settings.

Select Generate new token.

Give your token name and set an expiry date.

Scroll to the bottom and select Generate token.

Copy the token and paste it into the Obtainium settings. Make sure to copy your token now as you will not be able to see it again.

Carrousel7956

Novaliss it works a lot better that way?

MyIdentityIsntImportant

pizzadequeso

pizzadequeso So can you tell me, why you use Obtainium?

I use Obtainium to keep my dependcy on Google as minimal as I practically can in my app gathering process. My threat model is basically surveillance capitalism, so avoiding Google is pretty high on that list. Instead of having to get all my apps from the Play Store (even through using Aurora Store), I can get most of them through Obtainium, no Google involved at all. Though as a caveat, I mostly use FOSS apps which are available in places other than the Play Store. Not everything can be gathered through Obtainium, unfortunately.

As Novaliss pointed out, GitHub can be pretty restrictive with their rate limiting. I kept running into this issue as well, having 46 apps installed via Obtainium. I didn't want to use a personal access token since that could potentially be tied to me, so I found another suitable solution (for my set-up). Most of my apps could also be found in the IzzyOnDroid repo, so I fetch them from there instead of directly from GitHub. Haven't ran into basically any GitHub rate limiting issues after that.

Hope this helps.

Carrousel7956

MyIdentityIsntImportant thanks for the reminder on izzyondroid and im gonna migrate to that strategy. It seems like a really good project. My only concern is their AI ban but compromises must be made. I am just starting to occasionally get rate-limited so thanks for the elegant solution.

Delaney

pizzadequeso My main hesitation is that i can't think of a use case for it, but the app is quite popular, so I wonder if I missed anything.

You don't "need" it. It's just an app that makes tracking and updating apps from various sources more convenient by consolidating your sources.

Novaliss

Carrousel7956 works a lot better that way?

Yes, if accepting having a Github profile it opens for checking hourly any app updating to Github, and that's a plurality of the apps I monitor. My Obtainium stack has 160 different apps, most of them not installed, but there since I'm interested in their development. Most of these apps are assigned tracking updates from Github, a few from Gitlab, some from F-droid, other from direct apk-sources that the developer maintain. The backup of this configuration is among the most important files on my device, the file that has the longest evolution of personal preferences infused.

Novaliss

Carrousel7956 starting to occasionally get rate-limited

One trick is blocking unnecessary connections to Github from various app on your device. This may help keeping the rate within the limits.

Kamika242

pizzadequeso So can you tell me, why you use Obtainium?

faster updates than on F-Droid, if an app is available on GitHub too
getting apps and updates directly from manufacturer's sites, than from Play/Aurora/GitHub
possibility to export settings and app list, less work on new devices

pizzadequeso Droid-ify lets me know when an app has an update

Obtainium too.

pizzadequeso Many apps I only update when they break

You can stop Obtainium from looking for updates for single apps or deactivate auto-updates.

0xC0DED0D0

Obtainium also does "track-only", so you can be notified when applications are updated by the developer, even before they reach your preferred app store.

For example, I do this with all of GrapheneOS' packages, such as Vanadium. Quite handy.

So that's another use case, even without giving Obtainium install permission.

erikfritzek

pizzadequeso should add them 1 by 1 to Obtainium.

FYI - if you link github PAT to Obtainium, it will allow you to import your starred repos all at once.

oldschkool

MyIdentityIsntImportant I use Obtainium to keep my dependcy on Google as minimal as I practically can

I use it to update my apps, most of which are from Fossify. My approach to potential rate limiting is to adjust Obtainium's various update settings. I install only a relative minimal number of apps so my approach may not work for some users.

Novaliss

pizzadequeso Further readings:
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/32647-f-droid-or-obtainium-or-github/16

Carrousel7956

MyIdentityIsntImportant I have migrated many apps to IzzyOnDroid and I no longer seem to hit any rate limits :D

I remember being confused that just changing IPs didn't let the rate limit in Obtainum reset. Maybe it's built into the app... IDK. Also I would think occasionally I would run into a rate limit even with small amount of apps based on using a popular VPN server..

A surprisingly large amount of my apps aren't on IzzyOnDroid although many are on FDroid instead. Maybe only 20-40%.

cyberpholk

My understanding is that fdroid can lag behind in updates and there are issues with signature verification as well.

I think you should update your apps, but its up to you. Even if they aren't mentioning security updates per se, they are updating libraries and dependencies etc that could have their own vulnerabilities.
I mean, curl just had six or so new critical vulns patched iirc