FDroid as a replacement for Google Play. Is it possible and what will have to sacrifice?

Hello, Habr!

Inspired by the post "The Dark Side of Google Play . "
Since Android is based on the Linux kernel, it would be strange to abandon the ideology of Linux, in particular from the many repositories. But what surprised me, so not everyone knows about the alternative to Google Play, even people connected with IT.

About six months ago, I basically refused Google services in favor of FDroid on one of the tablets. And I will tell the community about the results of the current experiment. About the reasons, about pluses, minuses under a cat.

Black and white

For the first time, searching for alternatives to Google Play (GP) began searching a year ago in connection with the scandal with the NSA and Snowden. Then I first encountered FDroid . And already then this repository covered almost all needs: mail, browser, ssh client, etc. I also didn’t like numerous advertisements in apps.
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I will note the key advantages :

1. All applications are backed by reference to source codes.
2. Multiversion. For many applications, there is> 1 version of the distribution
3. Optionally, applications specify a link to their site (usually the same as the source) and a link to current tasks.
4. Unchanged design and structure of the application.
5. The ability to control repositories
6. No ads from GP in apps
7. All applications are free.
8. Application licenses are clearly indicated.

Of the minuses are quite obvious:

1. Not all applications from GP fall into the standard repository.
2. There is no way to set the price for the application (only donat, only good)
3. There are practically no games (is it a minus?)
4. An open question with guarantees
5. No instant application integration with google account
6. It is not possible to specify the installation directory
7. Requested permissions are displayed after preloading the entire application.

Hermitage

Now about the practical side of using FD and was it possible to completely abandon GP services?
Browser, keyboard, mailer, maps. The most popular applications to start. Everything was and is. Chrome is not in turnips, so the relationship with Ognelis saved. But the subway map and film search were only in the GP and temporarily had to abandon them.
In the future, I put Jabber from a turnip, tried some more browsers, media players and was pleasantly surprised by the set of applications working with Tor.

But the need for single applications from GP was still there. Trains, subways, traffic jams, movies, etc. Here I was saved by the ability to download apk distributions with GP in different ways. A crutch, but it works.

I am not interested in tablet games. There is something in the turnips, but with GP, of course, it’s not even close.

findings

Completely refuse GP services fails. Highly specialized and narrowly local applications get only there and the only possibility is to pull them out.
Versioning is “half-hearted”: you can upgrade, but I only managed to roll back by removing the application.

In general, you can live if the games are not interested too much. But if the tablet is gaming, then leaving the GP is simply pointless.

But why bother with GP and what does it do? From GP I leave, in principle, precisely because of all the caveats and the closeness of the source codes of the applications in it. Yes, in the OS written by Google, it is not entirely safe from it, but you can reduce the number of holes through which information about yourself flows. Well, I got rid of advertising = 3 To be honest, google products already frankly disappoint with an abundance of advertising.