this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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Signal is two things, a protocol to use over something else, and a proprietary service.
Matrix is an example of a total solution.
Signal is great, but it was unclear if I would be able to self-host my own Signal server if I wanted to support the public network and provide redundancy to my local LAN and connected networks.
Every time I look at Matrix it looks really cool and sounds great. But each time I try to setup a client or actually use it, nothing works, apps crash, and I can't actually use the dang thing. I tried setting up my own server, even tried using a public server with the Element web-app and still nothing worked, couldn't join rooms, etc.
Love the idea, haven't seen a decent implementation yet. Honestly kinda wish there was PGP for sms or something like that. I couldn't care less if the transport is insecure, as long as I can trust that only the intended recipient and myself can read/modify my messages.
~~You can't. Signal's server is closed source. Only the clients are open.~~
I just discovered Signal open source the server. Please kindly disregard what I said. I had the old news in my mind (maybe).
Signals server software is open source. I suspect you mean the main signal network is closed and centrally controlled (it's not federated basically) - anyone can run a private signal server (and network) but not as a node within the main signal network is my understanding.
Maybe they meant that at some point a few years ago Signal didn't update their public open source server code for neraly a year or so while simultaneously rolling out new features.
WTF? Signal Server code is open source 🤔🤨
I thought it was something like that. What I really want to see is an open-source version of Briar.
Go look at SimpleX Chat. Decentralized, no identificators, very privacy focused.
Briar is open source, but yeah, check out SimpleX Chat
I just checked and you're right! I looked into Briar a while ago and ignored it because I couldn't run the Briar-Mailbox program on Linux.
To add to what others have said, Signal's server code is open source, but they took the anti-spam module closed source last year
Matrix doesn't have forward secrecy, and signal is not proprietary, it's free and open source,
And Matrix does not fall back to SMS (unless someone implements such a Matrix client).
It would also be silly to try to get everyone you know to use YOUR Matrix client, or one compatible with it.
Signal removed SMS support a while ago...
Indeed, making it ineligible as an alternative to RCS or iMessage