4 ms·
As an answer to your first question: Between 2000-2003, I worked on components of the cross protocol IM backend used by many of the multi-protocol messengers b
by bluesmoon 6y ago
As an answer to your first question:
Between 2000-2003, I worked on components of the cross protocol IM backend used by many of the multi-protocol messengers back in the early to mid 2000s (eg: Adium, Trillian, Fire, Ayttm, and more). Each of the frontends had different ways to integrate. Trillian used 2 processes with TCP communication between them to get around the GPL licensed backend), Fire, Adium, Ayttm released everything under the GPL.
Eventually most clients moved to using libpurple as the backend (developed by the team behind Gaim), but the devs also started getting older, busier, and having other responsibilities outside of work. The only apps to survive were those that had a business model that allowed them to reuse open source code without having to release any of the code they developed themselves.
I personally stopped working on instant messaging in April 2004, the night before I became a Yahoo employee, though I continued blogging and doing conference talks about the experience:
- https://tech.bluesmoon.info/2004/09/fallback-messaging.html https://tech.bluesmoon.info/2004/09/fallback-messaging.html
- https://tech.bluesmoon.info/2011/05/story-of-george-ayttms-most-prolific.html https://tech.bluesmoon.info/2011/05/story-of-george-ayttms-m...
- https://tech.bluesmoon.info/2010/11/stream-of-collaboration-and-unified.html https://tech.bluesmoon.info/2010/11/stream-of-collaboration-...
- est31 6y agoIt's not just about devs getting older and busier, but also about networks becoming openly hostile towards third party client implementations. There used to be a healthy ecosystem of Whatsapp client libraries, but they have gotten takedowns, and their users bans. Eventually people give up. Some few individuals build third party implementations but keep them secret so that there is no retribution (I remember reading about a guy blogging about a self made iMessage client).
- Arathorn 6y agoThankfully the EU is moving rapidly towards making that sort of behaviour illegal, which as a knock-on effect should improve the situation for the world in general. https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-markets-act-ensuring-fair-and-open-digital-markets_en https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/euro...
- kpgiskpg 6y agoThis looks awesome! I wonder why I haven't heard about it before.
- LockAndLol 6y agoI think we all know which gatekeepers are going to land on the list and how happy they'll be to be on it. If this does more than just create a list and actually punishes gatekeepers for bad practices, I'll be impressed.
- visarga 6y agoIt's like net neutrality but for gatekeepers. They can't abuse their position.
- rorykoehler 6y agoThis is a great start
- kuroguro 6y agoYeah, same thing with discord. The "cordless" client dev got some of his accounts suspended recently and decided to stop developing the project :/