I’m ok with paying for quality foss software, as long as the payment method is available from any country in the world. PERIOD. no exceptions. Not even North Korea should be prohibited from paying.

Ads are a hard turnoff though. There is no place for ads in my world.

i agree with being able to pay devs directly in the store esp with some sort of privacy barrier, i pay, they don’t need to know who I am but ads… why why why

This article is about Mobifree https://f-droid.org/en/2024/05/24/mobifree.html As far as I can see F-Droid mentions that it will be a contributing partner :

For more than 14 years, F-Droid has been developing solutions which act as pieces of the alternative mobile ecosystem puzzle. So it was a natural fit for F-Droid to become a contributing partner in the broader Mobifree project.

F-Droid playing a role :

F-Droid will play a major role in this project, tasked with creating a decentralized distribution system for developers to deliver apps to Android users.

Help to create the NGI funded project Mobifree :

F-Droid is one participating organization who has joined forces to help create this new mobile ecosystem. However, additional input, expertise, inspiration and work will be needed in order to break the traditional framework established by Big Tech. From community outreach to legal support, from developers, to researchers and end users, we welcome all forms of support.

I don’t read that F-droid will force ads on F-Droid on users any time soon. I can imagine F-Droid will continue to exist as it is but I could be wrong.

If they want and find it necessary, they can, but I will no more give them support. The donations principle is good, but force them or anything else is really bad. The only way of offering a subscription is when proposing an other service than the app, as example a support with full-time people or an hosted service with their servers…

They should create P-Droid for that. Leave F-Droid as free.