Free software and the Android SDK

So I have noticed that we have problem in the Android development space. We have a library of free apps on F-droid and other places which is great but I have noticed that we do not seem to have a free up to date build of the Android SDK. I do not know why but we should look to change that.

Historically there were builds from Beuc. However, those builds are no longer available. There are builds from Replicant android but those are built from code that is from 2013. We are right now lacking publicly available premade builds. I believe you can still build from source but the documentation to do that is all a bit dated so it would be a challenge.

I wanted to create this post as we need to create awareness about free software issues. We all take F-droid for granted but creating ethical apps is hard. The SDK is just one piece of a large puzzle.