this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
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Privacy
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Time to use matrix, I guess
Decentralize baby!
I’ve been using Matrix with muh fam for a few years, and it’s been great.
My significant other puts up with my shenanigans and tests out different apps with me, and SimpleX has been pretty decent for a server-less option. I believe you can host your own node if you feel inclined to.
XMPP would be fantastic if the clients were a little better. They’re by no means bad, just not as polished as Element.
Why matrix and not Signal? Genuine question.
Because matrix is decentralised, like lemmy, and is therefore really hard to get compromised.
That's nice.
Technology cannot solve purely political problems.
But, it can prevent political problems hurting my privacy..
And there is nothing they can do against it.
If they force matrix to insert a backdoor, I just use a fork without it.
If they force my Linux distributor to add a backdoor, I just use a fork without it.
If they force a backdoor in iOS and Android, I use a fork of open source android or mainline linux for phones, without it.
If they want to hang me because I do such things, I riot.
These technical workarounds may work for a little while, and are useful to some extent.
But they're not long term solutions for a government that regularly increase its surveillance powers at the expanse of privacy.
China and Russia reached a level of surveillance and repression where people may get arrested for merely using Matrix/VPN/Tor, regarless of what it's used for.
Political action is a better way to address bad politics before it reaches this point. This could include voting, activism, supporting privacy-friendly NGOs...
Waiting until the last moment and then rioting isn't the best option.
Fair argument, which I agree on 😇
I've been hearing a lot of complaints about matrix recently
Giving Up on Element & Matrix.org
It is just people who are inpatient and think that a company offering FOSS software has as much resources as a company offering proprietary data collection services which they can sell
It does what I need it to do and even more. All I need is a tool to communicate with my friends in secure way
People who want to use it as replacement for discord are those who complain most, but I use it as replacement of WhatsApp etc.
The guy who wrote that article has been pushing matrix for 5 years or so, and his complaints sound pretty legitimate. Not exactly clueless user bullshit. Did you read the article?
I did not say that the author is clueless, I just don’t see how you can expect fast development in a capitalist world when they don’t really sell anything
Don’t get me wrong, I am frustrated about slow progress as well, but I have the opinion, that only whining about it does not make it better
If you are not happy with the speed of progress, “just” get a team, fork it, and do it yourself
Article was way to long, so I only skimmed it
Never understood this argument. Not everybody can be working on everything, and while Matrix is open source it's also got an official company maintaining it, so you'd have an uphill fight from the start. The obvious other choice is to use an alternative, which is what the author did by moving back to xmpp.
This exchange shows a clash of philosophies. While you are not wrong exactly, neither is your interlocutor. The "capitalist" mindset (as illustrated by your good-faith comment) is to treat this like shopping - "we'll just go elsewhere". But the whole point of FOSS is that we do the work, not "them". So while it's true that "not everyone can be working on everything", ultimately that's very much our problem and one that only we can solve.
But in this case, we have a choice between two FOSS solutions, so whichever choice we make, we're still going to be promoting FOSS. It's not like we're discussing leaving matrix for discord or WhatsApp.
OK. So this is just another XMPP-vs-Matrix debate. Assuming that the holy grail is a distributed, federated drop-in replacement for Whatsapp, then, as I understand it, Matrix is a far more advanced on that path. In any case, just as there are not competing protocols for email, the ultimate solution is clearly one protocol. Everyone jumping ship every 3 months will not get us there.
Fair. Element X not supporting threads isn't really giving a good perspective on the platform.
Things don’t remain as they are if other services are not encrypted anymore (or have backdoors)