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Are there any other projects using this setup? Also, any write up on the compelling reasons to switch? Are they hoping this move will attract more contributors?

Are there any other projects using this setup? Also, any write up on the compelling reasons to switch? Are they hoping this move will attract more contributors? Article is unclear.

feanaro 7y ago
Compelling reasons to switch: it's an open standard, it's federated (so you can own your own server and avoid vendor lock-in), it has end-to-end encryption, it supports bridging with many other protocols, there's quite a growing ecosystem of tools and libraries around it, etc. The protocol itself is designed to be really flexible in the kind of data you can send through it (and therefore automatically propagated to and synchronized with other servers) so it can support a lot of different use cases. This includes standard chat app things like audio/video calls but it could also be used for stuff like forums or even serve as a backend for syncing information between organization (I'm thinking of things like medical information between health institutions). All in all, there's a lot of potential in Matrix.
- pteraspidomorph 7y ago
  I try matrix on occasion (as in, I set up my own server from scratch). The last time I tried it, support for multi-participant audio and video calls (and screensharing) was still between terrible and nonexistant. Definitely much worse than Discord. Has it improved?
  - feanaro 7y ago
    There were some bug fixes in the last year (IIRC) though nothing very substantial, I think. Then again, it's always worked reasonably well for me and I'm using it regularly. I heard it was going to get worked on soon, though.
    - Arathorn 7y ago
      There was a major upgrade to the conference calling about 6 months ago which took it from being "barely usable" to "almost as good as Zoom". It's different semantics to Discord in that it's classic conferencing rather than a voice channel, but it works well enough for the whole core Matrix team to use it basically constantly for remote collaboration. The conferencing servers are currently in London however, so you may suffer from transatlantic traffic problems if you are elsewhere in the world.
      - feanaro 7y ago
        Ah, thank you for the additional information. Is my grapevine information correct that more work will be done to improve video calls and screensharing in the coming months? As an example of what could be improved, I do still encounter the occasional bug with call synchronization, the video stream of one of the sides not getting started on occasion and screensharing is hardly discoverable.
      - pteraspidomorph 7y ago
        Good to know!
jandem 7y ago
For background, see http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2019/04/26/synchronous-text/ http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2019/04/26/synchronous-text/
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
floatingatoll 7y ago
Write up of reasons at this morning’s other FP here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21835749 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21835749
uhoreg 7y ago
> Are there any other projects using this setup? GNOME and KDE are also using Matrix.

Are there any other projects using this setup? Also, any write up on the compelling reasons to switch? Are they hoping this move will attract more contributors? Article is unclear.

feanaro 7y ago

Compelling reasons to switch: it's an open standard, it's federated (so you can own your own server and avoid vendor lock-in), it has end-to-end encryption, it supports bridging with many other protocols, there's quite a growing ecosystem of tools and libraries around it, etc. The protocol itself is designed to be really flexible in the kind of data you can send through it (and therefore automatically propagated to and synchronized with other servers) so it can support a lot of different use cases. This includes standard chat app things like audio/video calls but it could also be used for stuff like forums or even serve as a backend for syncing information between organization (I'm thinking of things like medical information between health institutions). All in all, there's a lot of potential in Matrix.

pteraspidomorph 7y ago
I try matrix on occasion (as in, I set up my own server from scratch). The last time I tried it, support for multi-participant audio and video calls (and screensharing) was still between terrible and nonexistant. Definitely much worse than Discord. Has it improved?
- feanaro 7y ago
  There were some bug fixes in the last year (IIRC) though nothing very substantial, I think. Then again, it's always worked reasonably well for me and I'm using it regularly. I heard it was going to get worked on soon, though.
  - Arathorn 7y ago
    There was a major upgrade to the conference calling about 6 months ago which took it from being "barely usable" to "almost as good as Zoom". It's different semantics to Discord in that it's classic conferencing rather than a voice channel, but it works well enough for the whole core Matrix team to use it basically constantly for remote collaboration. The conferencing servers are currently in London however, so you may suffer from transatlantic traffic problems if you are elsewhere in the world.
    - feanaro 7y ago
      Ah, thank you for the additional information. Is my grapevine information correct that more work will be done to improve video calls and screensharing in the coming months? As an example of what could be improved, I do still encounter the occasional bug with call synchronization, the video stream of one of the sides not getting started on occasion and screensharing is hardly discoverable.
    - pteraspidomorph 7y ago
      Good to know!

jandem 7y ago

For background, see http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2019/04/26/synchronous-text/ http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2019/04/26/synchronous-text/

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

floatingatoll 7y ago

Write up of reasons at this morning’s other FP here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21835749 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21835749

uhoreg 7y ago

> Are there any other projects using this setup? GNOME and KDE are also using Matrix.