[kwlug-disc] Skype (replacement)

[Hubert Chathi]

On Tue, 28 Nov 2017 16:26:29 -0500, Keefer Rourke <mail at krourke.org> said:

>> Matrix has been open and federated from the beginning, whereas Wire
>> only recently open sourced their server code, and as far as I know,
>> they still don't support federation.

> I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here. Wire has laid
> plans publicly for self-hosting and federation, and is *now* fully
> open- source; for whatever reasons (I suspect code-quality or
> readiness to publish since it was in beta until recently) it was kept
> behind closed doors. What makes software philosophically superior
> depending on when it was open-sourced? Linux didn't start out as FLOSS
> for instance.

The point is that, at least to me, Matrix *feels* more like a open
source community project, whereas Wire *feels* more like a centralized
project that allows other people to tinker with their code.  It's just
the impression that I get, whether not it's the truth. It's reflected
not only in when it was open-sourced (the fact that it took a long time
for Wire to open their code (and the fact that their server code still
doesn't have build instructions) makes it seem like they don't "get"
open source), but also in the fact that, for example:

- Matrix includes links to alternative clients, libraries, servers, etc.
- Matrix has published fairly detailed specifications for how clients
  talk to servers, and how servers talk to each other
- Wire doesn't seem to have any official place for community discussion

Having been in the Matrix community for a while, and not having any
experience with Wire, I'm probably biased, and given that it's still the
early days of Wire's open sourcing, things may change in the future, but
that is the impression that I get of the two projects.

> I think we're comparing apples to oranges here...

>> Looking at Wire's features page, it looks like it has several
>> limitations that Matrix does not have.  For example, it only supports
>> 128 members in a group chat (one (unencrypted) Matrix room I'm in has
>> over 11,000 members, and the largest encrypted Matrix room I'm in has
>> 172 members), which means that Wire can't be used as an IRC
>> replacement,

> Skype and most other video-first platforms don't support that many
> users in a group at a time. Wire makes for an acceptable Skype
> replacement, but I never said anything about replacing IRC? What's
> wrong with IRC? Long live IRC!

Sure, if your only aim is to replace Skype, then Wire is probably fine.
I personally would rather, where possible, to have one app that can
handle multiple uses.  Matrix gives me everything from 1:1 communication
and larger group chats.  I can even join the IRC channels that I want to
with it.  But then again, I don't do many 1:1 chats, so the deficiencies
in that area of Riot's 1:1 chat UI don't affect me much.