XCSoar gone from Google Play store?

[David S]

Did Max Kellerman retire from developing XCSoar? I can't find the XCSoar app on the Google Play store. However, XCSoar JET is available, and it adds some nice features.  It's page on the Play Store has this note dated June 17, 2024:

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For original XCSoar fan; you might wondering where is the original XCSoar app is. The answer is it's gone forever as the previous author took down the app.
The good news is a new author is taking over XCSoar future but there's still a lot of work to start publishing the original XCSoar again. (You can follow the progress at https://github.com/XCSoar/XCSoar/issues/1370)

In the meantime, XCSoar JET is the alternative to original XCSoar. XCSoar JET strategy is a soft fork, meaning we'll always have 100% of original XCSoar development/feature plus my features tailored to my personal needs.

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The conversation in the Github issue linked above started in March and includes the statement "Max has left the project and removed his play store entry for xcsoar" which sounds rather dire.  But I can't locate any other information about what has happened.

Does anyone know the backstory?

Thanks,

   ...david

[Ramy Yanetz]

I don’t have the back story but there  is an XCSoar forum which has been very quiet recently, perhaps Max took it down as well. 

What I do know and I think worth sharing here is that as of sometime last year XCSoar has a very serious bug which miscalculating all the arrival labels when there is wind. Instead of reducing arrival altitude with head winds, it increases arrival altitude, so the stronger the wind the bigger the error in arrival altitude. The bug only impacts map labels, not the infobox, resulting in big discrepancy. The issue is now fixed but wasn’t published yet. I wonder if it is fixed in the Jet version? 

Ramy

[two vallhunds]

Ouch!

Now both my flight computers are not supported:  CAI 302/303 & X/C Soar with an X/C vario.

Thanks for the warning about the bug.  I will keep an eye out for that.

[Ramy Yanetz]

XCSoar is still supported but currently seems to be available only on F-droid, not on the Google play store. There are instructions how to download from F-droid on the XCSoar web site. It took me several  attempts to get it to download so beware. It has the latest version including the fix to the bug I mentioned. 

Ramy