I'm surprised of these low numbers. How come the FSF does not aid this cornerstone project at all?

Well, FSF is highly ideological; not every FOSS project would match. I have no idea, whether F-Droid would match, I try to keep out of the heavy ideological arguments...

Does FSF sponsor any projects? (Honest question, never thought about it...)

Fiscal sponsorship: https://www.fsf.org/working-together/fiscal-sponsorship

F-Droid seems approved as a repo for Replicant, despite its "features you may not like" (but free software) apps.

> Fiscal sponsorship

Interesting. Unfortunately my first web search does not bring up a list of particpating projects, preferably with the amount in question, like e.g. https://spi-inc.org/corporate/annual-reports/2019.pdf

F-droid is amazing for android. It's probably the one nice thing about the platform.

lots of people have probably given up on android now though and there are multiple phones with support for a decent Linux distribution at this point.

> support for a decent Linux distribution

Last time I checked (admittedly a few months ago) the Librem 5 was the most promising Linux phone but had trouble reliably making calls!

Is there a fluid and reliable (hardware and software) Linux phone?

At work we're deploying some stock Android Samsung Xcover4s and despite having good enough hardware on paper they feel really sluggish when using them (before any apps installed, fully updated, most bloatware removed with ADB).

So if a 250€ Samsung with stock Android doesn't manage to be pleasant to use, I have doubts that a Linux phone will succeed but I would be happy to be wrong.

I'm trying to degoogle my e-life, I'm planning to install GrapheneOS on my Pixel 4 XL but if there's a Linux phone that matches the user experience I may consider switching to that instead.

You are making typical mistake: Linux is joy to develop. Well developed Linux distribution is joy to use for users, but boring for developers. Currently, if you are young developer, you can have lot of joy with Linux on phone.

Those multiple phones with support for a decent Linux distribution, don't run certain important apps. OSMAnd beats any of the rudimentary map offerings on the Librem or the Pinephone, for instance. Consequently, in the short term Linux phone users are interested in running Android apps through emulation (Anbox, or Jolla's Android layer), and when you do that, you usually get the apps you need through F-Droid.

> OSMAnd beats any of the rudimentary map offerings on the Librem or the Pinephone

Not to knock OSMAnd, but Ubports' Pure Maps isn't bad, is it?

> Ubports' Pure Maps isn't bad, is it?

Maybe some people find it sufficient for basic navigation, but it is missing all those detailed features that you can toggle on OSMAnd to clearly show OpenStreetMap tagging (road surfaces, street lighting, etc.)

> AOSP + f-droid

It might or might not be considered significantly different from AOSP, and at least most of the free apps in their "store" must come from F-Droid, but there's /e/: https://e.foundation Three cheers for F-Droid anyhow, and I'd have thought it should be mentioned under https://doc.e.foundation/projects-looking-for-contributors

Without them, we wouldn't have a reliable way of acquiring and updating apps that Google doesn't want on its platform like NewPipe.

And yet some people are pulling in $30k a month selling photos of themselves in bikinis on OnlyFans.

I try to be an optimist but sometimes it's hard to picture a bright future.

So, perhaps OnlyFans as a platform makes it easy, both in a logistical sense and a psychological one, to support creators you like with a recurring commitment.

Are there any open-source platforms that nail both of those factors?

Conclusion: Maybe F-Droid should be on OF.