Have a official F-Droid repository for Mozilla's Android applications

[Fuchsia]

Suggestion: Create a official F-Droid repository for Firefox/Focus/other Mozilla Android applications

Reasoning: Google Play can be slow with updates and not all users have access to Google Play as forks of Android don't have the Google Play Services, so having an official F-Droid repository would allow users with F-Droid or without Google Play to get the official Mozilla Android applications. Mozilla apps would still be on Google Play, and it would allow users more choice in getting their Mozilla apps.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[Cubix]

Yes, I would apreciate a F-Droid-Repo aswell !

I know there is the "Fennec F-Droid"-Version on F-Droid but the updates are not as frequently as Firefox Android. Right Fennec F-Droid is 1 major version behind Firefox Android. From security perpective it would be reasonable to have a Firefox Repo for F-Droid.

I still apreciate the work of the publisher of Fennec-F-Droid especially the usability of about:config 🙂

[tlzyiqleu]

https://forum.f-droid.org/t/why-is-the-normal-firefox-not-available-in-f-droid/11645/13

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/162

the f-droid rejected firefox,not firefox reject the f-droid

[ansiklopedici]

Yes! Example address: download.mozilla.org/fdroid

[Cubix]

The reason for denial seems understandable for me and Mozilla did not answer to that problem yet AFAIK?

Alternative: Help the maintainer of Fennec F-Droid to publish new versions of Fennec faster. It would be a big win in security aspect.

[mg6]

"the f-droid rejected firefox,not firefox reject the f-droid" - Yes, but Firefox could easily change in order to not be rejected any longer.

[adorsaz]

> @tlzyiqleu @mg6 
> "the f-droid rejected firefox,not firefox reject the f-droid" - Yes, but Firefox could easily change in order to not be rejected any longer.

Indeed F-Droid rejects the Firefox official APKs on their own application store (f-droid.org). That's fine and there's no need to ask any of them to change something about their software and/or policy.

The request here is therefore to ask Mozilla to create their own store using same technology than f-droid.org (that is an "F-Droid repository").

So user can add the Mozilla store address to the F-Droid application and receive updates timely and securely.

[andd]

As the title of this idea is misleading please change it to:
  Supply Mozilla's Android builds in a repository which is compatible to F-Droid

This idea is just about creating a additional download option for the existing builds. The background of this idea is that F-Droid supports 3rd party repositories, which can contain any Android Packages completely independent from themselves. 

The only thing that has to be done is to supply the metadata of the downloads in a suitable format.
More information on how to setup up your own F-Droid compatible repository can be found here:
https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Setup_an_F-Droid_App_Repo/

[Espionage724]

https://forum.f-droid.org/t/f-droid-users-in-danger-because-of-exaggerated-purity-rule/28877

I'm using a OnePlus 6 (not receiving any OS/security updates from OnePlus for years/discontinued) with LineageOS 21 and no Google Apps (no Play Store; my set-up alone is unsupported to Google). I used F-Droid, and for a week there's been a banner saying Fennec isn't secure and it's on 129.

I don't know what F-Droid's policies are, but I'd prefer an official Mozilla repo for Firefox, or easier means to obtain the latest APK aside from having to trawl through https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/fenix/releases/

I like running the same apps everywhere, and other browsers aren't an issue to use on my desktop on Linux. I'm considering using DivestOS and their repo'd Mull/Firefox (may as well go all-in DivestOS instead of just their Mull repo on LOS), but have also considered Chromium if they have an easier distribution method. Official Mozilla Firefox should not be this complex to get outside of Play Store on Android imo.