I like this reddit comment’s explanation:

As someone said before, compare it to E-Mail.

Matrix ~ smtp/pop3/imap (protocol layer)

synapse ~ sendmail/postfix/dovecot/exchange/… (server)

element, fluffy, … ~ thunderbird, outlook, pine, elm, … (clients)

Everyone can host it’s own server and have it’s on private chat cloud. Thats like E-Mail and other opensource chat servers like Rocket.Chat, Mattermost and so on.

But like for E-Mail, it is easy possible to federate with others (like mail: “talk” to other mailservers), to be able to chat with people on other Matrix Servers. That’s the difference to most of the other opensource chat.servers, which are stuck to their cloud.

As for EMail: Choose your best weapon, will say, client or server software. The protocol is free and will stay free. At this time, there’s mainly synapse as the reference implementation from matrix.org and upcoming dendrite, but more servers will be available in future I think. At client side, theres element as the reference implementation and also some others, for example fluffy.chat.

Another cool feature ist bridging. The protocol specification allows bridges to other chat-systems, so you are for example able to talk to IRC-Servers or XMPP-Servers too. Many bridges are in development, less are stable. But more to come in future.

Matrix.org is “outsourced” from university and responsble for developing the specs. They are the big brain behind. They also server matrix.org as free service for people to test matrix or use it without having their own servers.

Element.io is also an outsourced company, which is developing element (reference clients). They are also selling hosted solutions to get money to the project.

Both are under the roof of the new Vector limited.

Because the Api is free, everyone can produce own servers an clients and (in theory) no one can take the whole network over. (in practice: if a big company does its own “cool” non open addons and has enough users, the same shit as for xmpp and WhatsApp could happen…)

Because everyone can host its own servers *and* optionally federate, the same product can be used for high secure private chat-clouds, for example in hostpital, military, schools, whatever, but it can also be uses to talk everyone like e-mail or phone. *And* no one has the masterhost, so no one has all data and no one can change the rules overnight to get money, more data or whatever.

From functional side: Matrix is what some people call “modern”, it has text chat, you can send files, you can do voice- and video-calls (in element: 1:1, for groups with jisi as backend) and send voice-messages (at least in fluffy.chat, upcoming in element also). You can also plugin things like etherpad or BigBluButton and send cute stickers if needed. You can structure your contacts with “spaces” (beta).

Element got better and better in the last year and is imho very easy to use for now, but with some last edges. Fluffy is somewhat easier some users as far as I’ve heared but not feature complete.

I hope, Matrix will be the E-Mail-Version of Chat in the future. I have reviewed some systems for my university and it was the only one from which I think it has the potential to do so. So, give it a try. It’s great.

It’s the issues with XMPP’s spec: you don’t just use XMPP, you use XMPP + your favorite optional spec implementations.

If your friends aren’t on the same server/client combo then you won’t be able to communicate with them (effectively).

I loved XMPP, still do, but haven’t used it in years. If it were to get a single, matrix-style “spec release” (think an aggregation of existing features into one collection) that contains/requires a bunch of modern chat features I’ve come to expect from programs, then I could see it potentially having a resurgence.

I’m very excited for this! Granted, I do wish they’d stop “announcing” Matrix 2.0, but I think the release of SSS alone is reason enough for celebration.

I have sync issues with even Slack or WhatsApp when I use an old device that hasn’t updated in a while - Matrix’s new sync scheme is genuinely fantastic and fixes all the issues my aging synapse server was having (4+ year server means those initial syncs on log-in could tak upwards of 10 minutes).

Now I just want Element Call to work with my pre-existing accounts and then I’ll be ready for the next Matrix 2.0 announcement 😂

Might need to find more active communities?

The spam thing is annoying, but is a result of anyone being able to join a room and just upload images.

Really wish the large rooms would just disable image uploads, or use a bot to police new users a bit.

That latter point doesn’t really apply if you leave America.

This is art.

Yeah, really don’t get this one. As an example, I’ve been supporting the guy who writes most of the software I use via Github sponsors for a while, now. It’s nice to get access to additional support chat rooms and perks and stuff, but just the feeling alone is satisfying enough.

Feelsgoodman.jpg

I genuinely recommend those with gainful employment to consider supporting the people who make the software and media you like (E.g. Patreon).

Issue reports and the likes are nice, but they’re really not a substitute for cash (in my opinion).

Yep, check out yabai.

This is a pretty interesting idea! And I do agree that the feature to aggregate comments from multiple posts would be useful.

I’m annoyed to see you getting down voted - I had a similar issue years ago with my work MacBook (couldn’t run a custom WM because any modification to the Finder was blocked without putting the machine into “unsafe” mode).

I love OSS, but without a verifiable way to distribute it large swaths of the workforce won’t be able to use it.

F-Droid is great, but sadly it isn’t enough.

I’ve got a Remarkable Pro, and the old Remarkable 2. The Pro is pretty fantastic, re: refresh times.

Aah, okay.

I don’t mind the chroot too much, especially as you can just use Termux’s termux-setup-storage script for accessing files.

But, yeah, I can see how one would want to use su for that!

You’re totally right, but I wasn’t assuming they had a rooted phone.

Is there any difference between the native shell and Termux’s? I just installed fish and chsh’ed it to default: after syncing over all my dotfiles it looks and acts as expected.

Try Termux, it’s great.

While it doesn’t get you sudo, it does get you a package manager and a decent amount of programs.

I use it and rclone to sync my cell phone’s photos to a S3 bucket.

This place is known for both their price and portion size. I generally get two meals out of a single $30 sandwich.

Regardless of how popular the place is with tourists, it is still a classic.

And, bonus: if the line is too long you can just go to Russ and Daughters a block away and grab a pastrami lox bagel (see attached).

Well, you can see it here.

Also, here’s a nice overview of what it is and why it’s so expensive. I didn’t know that particular species of fish was almost extinct because of overfishing.

As humanity we kind of suck, don’t we?

Can we not give them ideas? Thanks.

Black and White 2 was also fun

I’ve been trying OnlyOffice recently - seems pretty nice so far.

Delicious 👌