this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2024

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DivestOS ends development (www.divestos.org)

submitted 1 day ago by kixik@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

45 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This is so so sad, :( I've been using Mull for quite some time and recently Hypatia. I guess time to move to fennec since I doubt there's a fork in the horizon, :(

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[–] mac@lemm.ee 5 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

After a quick look at what I believe is mull's most up to date repo https://github.com/Divested-Mobile/Mull-Fenix

It doesn't appear to be too complex to maintain (only looked at the past 3 or so commits as I'm with fam right now)

Hoping someone continues with the project, as it was, in my opinion, probably the most privacy friendly browser for android other than Tor which has it's usability issues.

I may try to play around with setting up an fdroid build server for the interim after the holidays.

Edit: I wonder if the old maintainer would be open to having some sort of knowledge transfer session?

[–] horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

If you fork I'll contribute what I can

[–] mac@lemm.ee 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I'll reach out to the old maintainer early January, but I'll try to spend some time understanding the repo before then.

If it requires a lot of maintainace, I'm afraid I won't have the time as I already work overtime as a software dev.

[–] horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Feel free to DM me. It's a good project and will look good on a resume so it'll be worth my time. I'll be learning the Android kernel but I'm comfortable with the Linux kernel so it's the perfect project for me to be honest. I'm also willing to help organize the efforts of others, create documentation and respond to issues and pull requests.

I was already considering contributing to Postmarket OS or Bliss OS but this sounds like a better fit for me.

[–] mac@lemm.ee 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Personally, I wouldn't be interested in continuing DivestOS itself, as that is much lower level than I'm comfortale at. If I were to do this I'd focus on maintaining mull. I'll reach out if this seems feasible for me. Will prob have a chance to deep dive on the 26th

[–] horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Understood. Happy Holidays.

[–] fireshell@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 hours ago

On New Year's Eve, each of us can radically change our lives, we can only wish him luck.

[–] zerozaku@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Nooooooo Mull is dead now? It's my default browser.

I hope someone picks it up and forks it like we have Cromite for Bromite.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 22 hours ago

Wait, Bromite was discontinued too?

I really wish more devs would utilize the "pop up the changelog after update" technique to let users know. There has to be a better way than having to check each project's individual page and/or discord regularly.

[–] SatyrSack@feddit.org 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I have never really known the major differences between Mull and Iceraven. I keep them both installed, so I will probably be switching to Iceraven full-time now.

[–] LemoineFairclough@sh.itjust.works 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I personally don't use either of the browsers you mentioned: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/mobile-browsers/

[–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Privacy Guides still recommends fucking Brave browser? Brave analyzes your data on your device for ads, which is better than sending it off to Google, but actual privacy browsers don't analyze your data at all, and their CEO is a piece of shit.

[–] cinnamon_tea@programming.dev 10 points 21 hours ago

So now what will I run on my one plus one? ಥ_ಥ

I dunno how the guy managed this for 10 years for so many devices. I can't even build my own ROM for just this phone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] Stomata@sh.itjust.works 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

They didn't mentioned Mull . What will happen with it? Will it be discontinued,??

[–] Neptr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 18 hours ago

Yes

[–] Tinkerer@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

AW man this is sad news, thanks to the dev for all their hard work!

Any recommendations on a browser similar to mull on android?

[–] mac@lemm.ee 2 points 18 hours ago

Fennec is what I'll be moving to.

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

It's truly a shame that no one stepped up to help contribute to the project

[–] LucidBoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm a newb, what's connection between DivestOS and Mull here? I thought DivestOS was a Linux distro.

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 32 points 1 day ago (2 children)

DivestOS is a modified version of Android. Mull is an Android browser, fork of Firefox, maintained by the Divest dev.

[–] gwilikers@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wait is support for Mull ceasing?

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He mentions that "DivestOS and its apps will not receive any further updates", and only mentions continuing non-app projects, so I guess so :(

[–] gwilikers@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 day ago

Awwwwh man. Mull is my favourite mobile browser! Hope there will be a fork. I'd love to contribute.

[–] LucidBoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

thank u

[–] sifr@retrolemmy.com 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Damn, why?

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 73 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I found this: https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/the-end-of-divest/23396/43

I’ve worked on this project a decade. That is a long time and I need to move on in life.

Sounds like a single person maintaining such a large project for such a long time means eventually you have had enough. I get that.

[–] Templa@beehaw.org 5 points 21 hours ago

Wow, people fucking suck. Instead of talking about how the project helped or appreciate the dev's work people started fighting regarding if certain ROM is worth being recommended or not.

[–] jherazob@beehaw.org 23 points 1 day ago

And once again this XKCD applies

[–] carzian@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 day ago

The Dev stated he's been working on it for 10 years and says its time to move on

[–] QuazarOmega@lemy.lol 5 points 1 day ago

This is a terrible day for rain

[–] furzegulo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago

thanks for all the hard work to the dev! guess i'll move from mull to firefox nightly then.

[–] sem@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Does anyone know a good alternative for Hypatia?

[–] mac@lemm.ee 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Unsure how reliable this is for other attack vectors, but amnesty Intl has https://github.com/mvt-project/mvt for known Pegasus signatures

Note: this is ran on a computer and scans via adb

[–] skarn@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No, and simply somebody that know what they're doing should pick it up. I'd certainly be willing to donate a little, just as I donated to the original project.

The FOSS Android world has a new music player every week, and apparently still only one antivirus.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Antivirus on Android? How does that work? Warden seems a better idea to me.

[–] Hiro8811@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

Hypathia uses the same method as clam-av. It hashes all the files and compares it to a known database of malware. It's a lot faster than whatever Avast is using.

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Aww man now what ?

[–] Templa@beehaw.org 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As a Carrion user this is very sad, I wonder if there's something else to replace it

[–] kixik@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yet Another Call Blocker?

[–] Templa@beehaw.org 1 points 21 hours ago

Thank you! I will give it a try

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Mull browser is mullvad browser?

[–] kixik@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 hours ago

Totally unrelated, mull is pretty cool in the sense that it brings arkenfox configs for the user, and it strips some binary blobs. To me the AOSP privacy browser with no actual alternative. Some say it's like librewolf for AOSP.

Bottom line, no, totally different things.

[–] BarHocker@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No, Mull browser has nothing to do with Mullvad VPN.

[–] kchr@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

GP probably asked whether Mull was shortname for the Mullvad browser.

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 1 points 12 hours ago

Thanks this was what I meant.