4 ms·

Can someone give the “elevator pitch” of what sets Matrix apart?

by xondono 6y ago

bertman 6y ago
Apart from what? Compared to xmpp: Marketing mostly.
- oehtXRwMkIs 6y ago
  XMPP vs Matrix is a really interesting discussion. I don't think marketing is the main difference though, I think most developers would prefer to work with Matrix and the user experience is much better. Here's a decent past discussion that also links to older discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12880860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12880860
- xondono 6y ago
  I’m just not “in the know” to see if this is the case, but I just found myself taking a look at the site and thinking “what’s new about this?”
- Arathorn 6y ago
  From a technical perspective, Matrix & XMPP are about as different as you can get. It's not just a marketing thing. Matrix is a decentralised encrypted conversation store; where all conversation history gets replicated across all the participating servers/nodes. It's a bit like Git, or NNTP (Usenet) or possibly IMAP, depending on how you squint. XMPP is a message-passing protocol; where stanzas get passed between servers/nodes. It's a bit like SMTP or SIP. There are a bunch of other differences philosophically (Matrix is one big monolithic versioned spec; XMPP is a cloud of XEPs, etc) too. The only similarity in the end is that you can use both to build chat systems (and you can use both to build a bunch of other things too - e.g. IOT use cases). Another way of thinking of it is SVG versus Canvas. Or OpenGL versus a Scene Graph library (Open Inventor, or whatever that's become now). Sure you can use both to draw pretty pictures, but architecturally they couldn't be more different.
benparsons 6y ago
Real-time decentralisation is the headline. Matrix allows you to host your own server, federate messages in real-time between servers, and still benefit from end-to-end encryption between multiple client devices. Good place to get started reading: https://matrix.org/docs/guides/introduction https://matrix.org/docs/guides/introduction
- Boulth 6y ago
  > Matrix allows you to host your own server, federate messages in real-time between servers, and still benefit from end-to-end encryption between multiple client devices. This sounds like XMPP so nothing new. What sets the Matrix apart is that they have the money and spend time and effort to get their clients into good shape. The E2E verification is a prime example: looks simple and works well.
upofadown 6y ago
Cross signing. If you already have a verified device you can use that device to verify new devices. That way you don't have to bother all your correspondents when you get a new phone.

Can someone give the “elevator pitch” of what sets Matrix apart?

bertman 6y ago

Apart from what? Compared to xmpp: Marketing mostly.

oehtXRwMkIs 6y ago
XMPP vs Matrix is a really interesting discussion. I don't think marketing is the main difference though, I think most developers would prefer to work with Matrix and the user experience is much better. Here's a decent past discussion that also links to older discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12880860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12880860
xondono 6y ago
I’m just not “in the know” to see if this is the case, but I just found myself taking a look at the site and thinking “what’s new about this?”
Arathorn 6y ago
From a technical perspective, Matrix & XMPP are about as different as you can get. It's not just a marketing thing. Matrix is a decentralised encrypted conversation store; where all conversation history gets replicated across all the participating servers/nodes. It's a bit like Git, or NNTP (Usenet) or possibly IMAP, depending on how you squint. XMPP is a message-passing protocol; where stanzas get passed between servers/nodes. It's a bit like SMTP or SIP. There are a bunch of other differences philosophically (Matrix is one big monolithic versioned spec; XMPP is a cloud of XEPs, etc) too. The only similarity in the end is that you can use both to build chat systems (and you can use both to build a bunch of other things too - e.g. IOT use cases). Another way of thinking of it is SVG versus Canvas. Or OpenGL versus a Scene Graph library (Open Inventor, or whatever that's become now). Sure you can use both to draw pretty pictures, but architecturally they couldn't be more different.

benparsons 6y ago

Real-time decentralisation is the headline. Matrix allows you to host your own server, federate messages in real-time between servers, and still benefit from end-to-end encryption between multiple client devices. Good place to get started reading: https://matrix.org/docs/guides/introduction https://matrix.org/docs/guides/introduction

Boulth 6y ago
> Matrix allows you to host your own server, federate messages in real-time between servers, and still benefit from end-to-end encryption between multiple client devices. This sounds like XMPP so nothing new. What sets the Matrix apart is that they have the money and spend time and effort to get their clients into good shape. The E2E verification is a prime example: looks simple and works well.

upofadown 6y ago

Cross signing. If you already have a verified device you can use that device to verify new devices. That way you don't have to bother all your correspondents when you get a new phone.