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I'm trying to solve this walled garden problem by building a free native desktop client for Slack, Skype, XMPP, Twitter etc. It doesn't have the 10 000 message

I'm trying to solve this walled garden problem by building a free native desktop client for Slack, Skype, XMPP, Twitter etc. It doesn't have the 10 000 messages limit, it's very light (~100 KB) and fast: https://eul.im https://eul.im I recently started working on it full-time, so I expect a stable release to be out this month.

mcjiggerlog 9y ago
Looks cool, but do you have any intention on supporting macOS Sierra (or earlier versions)? > You have macOS 10.12.6. The application requires macOS 10.13 or later.
- amedvednikov 9y ago
  The macOS bundle is not set up correctly right now, that's why it doesn't work on older versions of macOS. Run it from Terminal for now: ~/Downloads/eul.app/Contents/MacOS/eul I'll fix this in v0.31.
gkya 9y ago
The premise is cool indeed, but are you really going to solve "this walled garden problem" with a closed-source application?
la_oveja 9y ago
Looks VERY promising! I wanted the Linux alpha but doesn't seem like it's there yet :( I'll be following this for sure <3
- amedvednikov 9y ago
  Thanks! Linux beta will be out this month. Right now I'm working on fixing bugs and crashes and implementing missing crucial features. Wrapping up the Linux GUI bit will only take a couple of days.
boramalper 9y ago
> I'm trying to solve this walled garden problem By building a closed-source client? Cool project; it's really impressive and I'd love to use once it gets stable, but don't you think your claim is a bit incompatible with your method?
- amedvednikov 9y ago
  It's going to be open-sourced at some point, just not now. What I meant is I'm building an alternative client that gives people a lot more freedom. For example, you can use XMPP as your primary messenger, and still communicate with your teammates via Slack. You can also have access to all your history and a much, much better instant search. In the future, an IRC/XMPP gateway will be built in as well.
  - nukeop 9y ago
    Why not now?
    - la_oveja 9y ago
      Opening a project early to contributors can end in mixed milestones, and the project may never archieve an "stable" status. I might not be using the best words, so I'll give examples: Dolphin, the GameCube/Wii emulator did not release it's source code until the program's structure was mature enough to start adding thirth party code without disrupting the project's core codebase.
jimmy1 9y ago
I will always cheer on someone building something cool, but here's the problem I have: Everyone wants to build an open source alternative, no one wants to make money. What is wrong with making money? Money is great -- it lets you buy clothes, food, shelter, water, and even a night out on the town or two. We need to be able to make money on software again, not just have user data be the product. This is partly to blame on the FOSS zealots. Sure they say it's "just fine" to make money on your software, but they never seemed to offer a method that is based in reality.
- kungito 9y ago
  Well he didn't say he wasn't going to earn money from the project, just that the client is free. There are many ways to monetize something and the benefits of starting with free is that you get biggest growth and then you can find your "whales" and learn how to profit from them.
- amedvednikov 9y ago
  Hi, I 100% agree with you. I want this product to make money so that I can devote my full time to it. The basic functionality will always be free without ads and tracking. But there will also be a very affordable ($1-2/mo) premium plan. I haven't yet decided what it's going to have. Most likely an ability to add more than 5 accounts or multiple accounts on the same platform (e.g. 3 Slack profiles).
  - ge0rg 9y ago
    It's perfectly fine to make money, nobody argues that. The point is that Open Source and making money don't contradict each other. Examples: - Conversations, the Android XMPP client, is GPL and sold on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conve... - There is also a paid hosted XMPP service on conversations.im. - I have a paid+OSS app for amateur radio geolocation on Google Play myself. You can download the APK from the homepage or just directly buy it for some bucks. - X-Chat, the OSS IRC client has a paid Windows version: http://xchat.org/windows/ http://xchat.org/windows/ You could OSS your app under whatever license you want, and still provide paid builds for any platform you want.
badosu 9y ago
Congratulations, we really need leaner IMs and from what I see it looks great! If it supports some important features like file uploading, pinning and seeing pinned threads, etc. to reach Slack feature parity I'll surely take a shot. Are you using QT for cross-platform compatibility or some other toolkit?
- amedvednikov 9y ago
  If I was using Qt, it'd be at least 25 MB, not 100 KB :) It's all native. Pinning is supported, just temporarily disabled. File support is not great right now. Only inline images are supported. But the goal is of course to have full feature parity and more, so follow the development :) A lot is going to be done by the end of March.
  - pritambaral 9y ago
    > If I was using Qt, it'd be at least 25 MB, not 100 KB :) Not on Ubuntu/Arch/etc... :)
    - zbentley 9y ago
      Well, Qt would still take up that space. It's just that on those platforms it's likely installed elsewhere and used by enough other things that it's closer to the "general userland size" category than it is to any one "specific application size".
      - pritambaral 9y ago
        Of course, that's what I meant, unlike at least as many copies of Chromium as electron apps.
my123 9y ago
Can you build it for all the 4 architectures supported by Windows (x86/x64/arm/arm64)? As it's not open source, recompilation cannot be done.
- amedvednikov 9y ago
  It's x86 right now, so it should run on x64. Is it possible to compile WinAPI apps for arm?
  - my123 9y ago
    Yeah it is.
tuananh 9y ago
eul takes forever to start first time. maybe you should tell user in advance. I thought it couldn't start at all.
- amedvednikov 9y ago
  Yeah, it's a bug. Will be fixed soon. Shouldn't take too long unless you have a really slow connection. It downloads 300 KB of icons.

mcjiggerlog 9y ago

Looks cool, but do you have any intention on supporting macOS Sierra (or earlier versions)? > You have macOS 10.12.6. The application requires macOS 10.13 or later.

amedvednikov 9y ago
The macOS bundle is not set up correctly right now, that's why it doesn't work on older versions of macOS. Run it from Terminal for now: ~/Downloads/eul.app/Contents/MacOS/eul I'll fix this in v0.31.

gkya 9y ago

The premise is cool indeed, but are you really going to solve "this walled garden problem" with a closed-source application?

la_oveja 9y ago

Looks VERY promising! I wanted the Linux alpha but doesn't seem like it's there yet :( I'll be following this for sure <3

amedvednikov 9y ago
Thanks! Linux beta will be out this month. Right now I'm working on fixing bugs and crashes and implementing missing crucial features. Wrapping up the Linux GUI bit will only take a couple of days.

boramalper 9y ago

> I'm trying to solve this walled garden problem By building a closed-source client? Cool project; it's really impressive and I'd love to use once it gets stable, but don't you think your claim is a bit incompatible with your method?

amedvednikov 9y ago
It's going to be open-sourced at some point, just not now. What I meant is I'm building an alternative client that gives people a lot more freedom. For example, you can use XMPP as your primary messenger, and still communicate with your teammates via Slack. You can also have access to all your history and a much, much better instant search. In the future, an IRC/XMPP gateway will be built in as well.
- nukeop 9y ago
  Why not now?
  - la_oveja 9y ago
    Opening a project early to contributors can end in mixed milestones, and the project may never archieve an "stable" status. I might not be using the best words, so I'll give examples: Dolphin, the GameCube/Wii emulator did not release it's source code until the program's structure was mature enough to start adding thirth party code without disrupting the project's core codebase.

jimmy1 9y ago

I will always cheer on someone building something cool, but here's the problem I have: Everyone wants to build an open source alternative, no one wants to make money. What is wrong with making money? Money is great -- it lets you buy clothes, food, shelter, water, and even a night out on the town or two. We need to be able to make money on software again, not just have user data be the product. This is partly to blame on the FOSS zealots. Sure they say it's "just fine" to make money on your software, but they never seemed to offer a method that is based in reality.

kungito 9y ago
Well he didn't say he wasn't going to earn money from the project, just that the client is free. There are many ways to monetize something and the benefits of starting with free is that you get biggest growth and then you can find your "whales" and learn how to profit from them.
amedvednikov 9y ago
Hi, I 100% agree with you. I want this product to make money so that I can devote my full time to it. The basic functionality will always be free without ads and tracking. But there will also be a very affordable ($1-2/mo) premium plan. I haven't yet decided what it's going to have. Most likely an ability to add more than 5 accounts or multiple accounts on the same platform (e.g. 3 Slack profiles).
- ge0rg 9y ago
  It's perfectly fine to make money, nobody argues that. The point is that Open Source and making money don't contradict each other. Examples: - Conversations, the Android XMPP client, is GPL and sold on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conve... - There is also a paid hosted XMPP service on conversations.im. - I have a paid+OSS app for amateur radio geolocation on Google Play myself. You can download the APK from the homepage or just directly buy it for some bucks. - X-Chat, the OSS IRC client has a paid Windows version: http://xchat.org/windows/ http://xchat.org/windows/ You could OSS your app under whatever license you want, and still provide paid builds for any platform you want.

badosu 9y ago

Congratulations, we really need leaner IMs and from what I see it looks great! If it supports some important features like file uploading, pinning and seeing pinned threads, etc. to reach Slack feature parity I'll surely take a shot. Are you using QT for cross-platform compatibility or some other toolkit?

amedvednikov 9y ago
If I was using Qt, it'd be at least 25 MB, not 100 KB :) It's all native. Pinning is supported, just temporarily disabled. File support is not great right now. Only inline images are supported. But the goal is of course to have full feature parity and more, so follow the development :) A lot is going to be done by the end of March.
- pritambaral 9y ago
  > If I was using Qt, it'd be at least 25 MB, not 100 KB :) Not on Ubuntu/Arch/etc... :)
  - zbentley 9y ago
    Well, Qt would still take up that space. It's just that on those platforms it's likely installed elsewhere and used by enough other things that it's closer to the "general userland size" category than it is to any one "specific application size".
    - pritambaral 9y ago
      Of course, that's what I meant, unlike at least as many copies of Chromium as electron apps.

my123 9y ago

Can you build it for all the 4 architectures supported by Windows (x86/x64/arm/arm64)? As it's not open source, recompilation cannot be done.

amedvednikov 9y ago
It's x86 right now, so it should run on x64. Is it possible to compile WinAPI apps for arm?
- my123 9y ago
  Yeah it is.

tuananh 9y ago

eul takes forever to start first time. maybe you should tell user in advance. I thought it couldn't start at all.

amedvednikov 9y ago
Yeah, it's a bug. Will be fixed soon. Shouldn't take too long unless you have a really slow connection. It downloads 300 KB of icons.