I am unfamiliar with Matrix and just read their website, but I’m still kind of confused as to the importance of a new release sub-version to this general technology community. This may be a stupid question, but does matrix provide infrastructure for the fediverse or something?
Edit: thanks for all the informative replies. I understand perfectly now, but I’m still confused as to why this was posted here. I’ve never seen software release notes posted before, so i don’t get why this is important enough to be here with such a high upvote percentage. Anyone have any insights on that to help my stupid brain make sense of this?
Notably missing from the comparison list is any mention of video or screen sharing, or anything to do specifically with games. These are Discord’s unique strengths at the moment and they have been for a long time. With that in mind, Matrix is a “good alternative” to Discord in the sense that most other desktop VoIP or chat apps are since Discord users aren’t using it for the privacy and openness aspects and want the Discord specific features and ease of use.
Don’t get me wrong, I wish I could fully replace Discord with the Matrix instance I currently self-host, but there are things Discord just does better than every other app including having a bunch of features that range from meh to pretty good all in one package.
No it doesn’t. It’s basically a bloated and more advertised version of XMPP by some venture capital funded startup. Sadly, it doesn’t build on existing internet standards like XMPP at all, so there’s no real compatibility.
Clients can tell the server to only send important traffic (=when new notifying messages are incoming) before going to sleep so it doesn’t use any radio now. Fast reconnects are also possible now, so we can wake up only when a push notification arrives. The only thing stuck in the 90s is your knowledge about XMPP.
Matrix aims to be a protocol for mostly real-time things like chat and voice/video calls.
It has a data structure called rooms (think: chat rooms) that are spread out across multiple servers and the servers synchronize the content between each other.
While ActivityPub (what most of Fediverse uses) is much simpler and just list posts adding API for interactions.
Matrix aim to be a fabric to build decentralized alternatives of Discord, Zoom, WhatsApp, Google Classroom, Jamboard, Google Docs, etc.
I am unfamiliar with Matrix and just read their website, but I’m still kind of confused as to the importance of a new release sub-version to this general technology community. This may be a stupid question, but does matrix provide infrastructure for the fediverse or something?
Edit: thanks for all the informative replies. I understand perfectly now, but I’m still confused as to why this was posted here. I’ve never seen software release notes posted before, so i don’t get why this is important enough to be here with such a high upvote percentage. Anyone have any insights on that to help my stupid brain make sense of this?
Among other features it can be a good discord alternative
Notably missing from the comparison list is any mention of video or screen sharing, or anything to do specifically with games. These are Discord’s unique strengths at the moment and they have been for a long time. With that in mind, Matrix is a “good alternative” to Discord in the sense that most other desktop VoIP or chat apps are since Discord users aren’t using it for the privacy and openness aspects and want the Discord specific features and ease of use.
Don’t get me wrong, I wish I could fully replace Discord with the Matrix instance I currently self-host, but there are things Discord just does better than every other app including having a bunch of features that range from meh to pretty good all in one package.
Matrix has screensharing
Why are they booing you? You’re right! Unless the stuff the Element app does natively somehow doesn’t count.
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No it doesn’t. It’s basically a bloated and more advertised version of XMPP by some venture capital funded startup. Sadly, it doesn’t build on existing internet standards like XMPP at all, so there’s no real compatibility.
XMPP needs a connected network socket which is pretty bad in a time of mobile services. The 90s are over.
Clients can tell the server to only send important traffic (=when new notifying messages are incoming) before going to sleep so it doesn’t use any radio now. Fast reconnects are also possible now, so we can wake up only when a push notification arrives. The only thing stuck in the 90s is your knowledge about XMPP.
I know enough about XMPP or earlier called Jabber to not to run it anymore, after years of self-hosting Prosody.
Well, apparently you don’t since you’re spreading outdated myths.
Matrix aims to be a protocol for mostly real-time things like chat and voice/video calls.
It has a data structure called rooms (think: chat rooms) that are spread out across multiple servers and the servers synchronize the content between each other. While ActivityPub (what most of Fediverse uses) is much simpler and just list posts adding API for interactions. Matrix aim to be a fabric to build decentralized alternatives of Discord, Zoom, WhatsApp, Google Classroom, Jamboard, Google Docs, etc.
You know that email analogy? Matrix is like email:
It’s more like a self-hosted and encrypted Google Chat alternative.
I wish it was as reliable as Google chat…
Yeah I have to agree. There are much better, more private, and more reliable solutions.
Any off the top of your head that are more private and more reliable, and can be self-hosted?
The biggest one that comes to mind is SimpleX, though it has issues with sending messages to large rooms.
I’m waiting on those reactions :D