Not another one.

Very interesting, well done for the research!

What we can surely all agree is that all these names, especially Walkman (Bill Bryson: “it’s not a man and it doesn’t walk”) were terrible.

First, I don’t want to denigrate your project. I think it’s great, so good luck to you.

But… As an end user of this kind of software, what I would like to see personally is for developers to work together more, in the spirit of FOSS. To pool their limited resources, instead of working in isolation on personal passion projects which (let’s face it) will probably go nowhere. Encrypted messaging in particular is a massively hard nut to crack: it’s technically difficult, and you’re up against the almost prohibitive barrier of network effects (nobody will use new software until everyone uses it). To make all this extremely plain, what I personally would prefer you do with your talent and energy is to devote it to an existing project with an existing codebase and genuine prospects of succeeding at this almost impossible challenge. For example, Matrix.

That said, I’m sure you couldn’t care less what I personally think, and if you insist on going it alone, then good luck to you all the same.

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.

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.

We agree on more than you think.

It should go without saying that I agree with your description of things. Likely everybody else here does too, it’s why we’re all subscribed to a “privacy” community. I just don’t see the point of telling people what they already know, that’s it’s all terrible, that they’re right to think it’s terrible, etc etc. I’d prefer to hear ideas for solutions, personally.

But others will surely vote you up and vote me down, so I guess I’m in the minority.

A web browser is the space shuttle of consumer software. The Gecko rendering engine alone has an enormous attack surface. Which of these forks is contributing security patches to keep it secure?

There are two distinct things to optimize for here: your immediate privacy, and the future of a non-corporate web.

If all you care about is the former, then do… whatever. But if you also care about the latter, you cannot use a browser that supports the Chromium monopoly. That means using any Firefox fork. Personally I use Firefox itself because it’s Mozilla that employs a paid security team, whose work all the forks are freeloading off.

even more so in our so perfectly democratic societies

This in particular makes little sense, and IMO the whole comment is nihilistic and defeatist and generally not very helpful. Just my opinion.

weird fetish

Ask people in those “far-flung possessions” whether they agree!

It’s like asking an engineer to build a safe bridge that only collapses for bad people

This metaphor for encryption backdooring is great.

a total of 250 electric buses from Chinese manufacturer Yutong […] the introduction of the new buses is financed through the European Recovery Fund

If it weren’t for the Chinese and the EU Commission, the climate battle would have been lost already.

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Germany is a real paradise for railfans. They’ve tried everything there: tram-trains, tram-metros, that hanging monorail-thing in Wuppertal.

The tram-train in Karlsruhe is a hilariously incongruous experience. One minute you’re sitting on a classic central-European city tram, trundling through little streets in Karlsruhe, then (as I remember it) the tram suddenly passes through a gate, accelerates wildly, and literally seconds later you’re racing across the countryside. Highly recommended.

S’adresser aux gens qui sont tous déjà d’accord en leur confirmant à coup de mots émotifs qu’ils ont raison, oui je considère cela une caricature des médias sociaux. Je trouve qu’on peut faire mieux.

Je ne comprends pas. Il n’y a pas d’homme de paille. Je critique son style et sa méthode et son usage de vocabulaire, qui pour moi reviennent à une caricature des problèmes des médias sociaux.

Les termes ont été employés en démonstration, c’était même libellé. Là tu dois faire exprès.

Ça passe. Ce qui me fait tiquer c’est le ton moralisateur et l’usage des insultes vides et infalsifiable (“réactionnaire et transphobe”) en tant qu’arguments (ils sont mis en gras comme s’il s’agit de statistiques !). Si l’objectif c’est de convaincre, c’est contre-productif : ça ne fait que polariser encore plus le débat. C’est tout le problème des médias sociaux en microcosme, tout comme d’autres commentaires dans ce fil où tout le monde est déjà d’accord.

Extrême droite ? Je vote vert. Toi tu exhibes (dans ce commentaire) tous les maux des médias sociaux : groupthink, flicage de la pensée, refus d’imaginer que ceux qui ne sont pas d’accord avec toi s’expriment en bonne foi (cynisme, pour résumer).