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Twinkletoes ,

I accidentally googled “FUTA Keyboard”

mke ,

Depends on what you mean by trust. This wasn’t made any clearer by reading the article.

“We promise not to do bad things” is not a safe long term contract. If they can change the terms at any moment and retain control, then they can break that promise and that’s final.

This is why open source matters. This is why we shouldn’t let people try to change the meaning open source. True open source is forever open, it is the author’s Ulysses pact.

FUTO keyboard is source available, and that’s final, too. Whether it is also “source first” and if that term is worth recognizing at all is a separate and entirely valid discussion. Even the worst incarnation of source available is still generally better than closed source, in my mind.

Can there be a trusted space between open and closed source? Maybe, I don’t see why not. Again, define trust, and who’s judging. Some people already trust closed source proprietary software, for some reason, while others strongly reject anything that isn’t free software—remember, we’re not talking about price, here.

I wish FUTO and Rossman all the best, as I do with the free software ecosystem and most of open source. Open source is open source, though, let’s not get it twisted.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Exactly. I use and enjoy FUTO Keyboard and Grayjay, but I’m under no illusion about them being open source, they’re source available. I think they’re great products and great alternatives to proprietary software, but until it’s released under a proper FOSS license, I will be keeping my eye out for credible alternatives.

gedaliyah OP ,
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world avatar

Outside of software spaces the discussion around copyright seems so much more nuanced. Any creative commons license is generally considered “copyleft” regardless of the details, and some are far more restrictive than the FUTO license. Consider projects like Wikipedia which accept content licensed under GDFL, or CC-BY, or CC-BY-SA, Apache 2.0, or PD.

I am not a programmer, so maybe I am missing a huge piece of context, but what is the insistence in the free software community for what seems like total license purity? I even see software engineers arguing that “everyone” should use Apache or MIT and not the other, which is somehow bad for the FOSS community. What am I missing? Isn’t more free better than less free?

mke , (edited )

I might not be the best person to explain this, but I believe you are, in fact, missing a bit of context.

Outside of software spaces the discussion around copyright seems so much more nuanced.

Inside software spaces, specific needs beget specific discussions. They are as nuanced as they need to be.

Did you know Creative Commons themselves recommend against using CC licenses for software?

what is the insistence in the free software community for what seems like total license purity?

The software world, and open source in particular, has historically had a lot of complex and frustrating moments due to licenses and the misaligned interactions of volunteers and companies. This probably leads many people to strongly advocate for what they believe would’ve helped in the past, and may help in the future.

I even see software engineers arguing that “everyone” should use Apache or MIT and not the other, which is somehow bad for the FOSS community.

I won’t get into whether everyone should use Apache or MIT—which aren’t considered copyleft, I think—but it’s also important to remember that even inside software spaces, people will often hold different and sometimes even conflicting views regarding moral/ethical/ideological matters. They can also be just straight up wrong due to lack of knowledge, experience, misunderstandings, etc. That includes me, by the way!

I hope that helped. I can point more resources later, if you want.

dmtalon ,

I both use, and bought this keyboard right after it was announced. I’d say it is not as good as gboard yet. I miss GIFs access and flip back and forth as required. I’ve had zero crashes on my Pixel 8P

It is my primary keyboard, and hopefully still learning, but word suggestion isn’t as good (yet). FUTO voice integrated in which I was already using can be quite good. I’m using the slower version which is a little less convenient but tends to work better.

MrCamel999 ,
@MrCamel999@programming.dev avatar

Honestly, since I can see the source code and confirm that it isn’t sending my data anywhere, I think it’s ok, even if it doesn’t meet the standard definition of foss. The keyboard is also pretty dang good, but I have two complaints. 1. I want to be able to resize the height of the keyboard. 2. The swipe typing sucks. As soon as those two things get fixed it’s easily the best keyboard on Android for me.

gedaliyah OP ,
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world avatar

You can adjust the height in the settings (edit: under themes). I use the swipe and seems to be as good as other open source keyboards (I previously used heli and AnySoft). It is still in alpha so hopefully they can refine it further.

BTW, heliboard is also pretty excellent.

MrCamel999 ,
@MrCamel999@programming.dev avatar

Ah, that height setting was hidden then lol. That fixes that issue! I’m also very aware of Heliboard, that’s what I’m currently using (with the google proprietary blob for swipe typing). I just don’t feel like the swipe is that good, it often just doesn’t produce any word after I’m done swiping out the word. Thanks for the tip about the height!

ThePantser ,
@ThePantser@lemmy.world avatar

I like the keyboard but it crashes frequently and android reverts back to gboard. On my OnePlus 9 pro.

gedaliyah OP ,
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve been using it for about a month now on a pixel phone and it’s been excellent. Parts of it are still in alpha, but I have been lucky.

joyjoy ,

I installed it on my Z-Flip 4 recently and it works well. The only issues I’ve had besides having to retrain it is related to vibration feedback. Tab vibration on auto doesn’t work, and there’s no vibration when swiping on the spacebar to move the cursor.

mortalic ,

Counter point, it hasn’t crashed once in my one plus 9 though I wish Swype worked better. I’m super happy to have another option though and am powering through it.

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