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Right, but what prevents them from doing a similar whole-platform "update" to totally screw up privacy/security? The point of software freedom is the freedom to
by Vecr 3y ago
Right, but what prevents them from doing a similar whole-platform "update" to totally screw up privacy/security? The point of software freedom is the freedom to run variations on the software that's reasonably easy to do, because you have the source. If it's supposedly "you can connect to any Signal server you want, as long as it's our Signal server" and "you can use any Signal client you want as long as it's our signal client", there's not much freedom left there.
- tptacek 3y agoAsk them! They're in the middle of one right now. The answer is simple: they don't control all the software, but rather have to convince other vendors to make changes. (I like Matrix and will always sound like I'm dunking on them because of the implications of Nebuchadnezzar, and, before that, of opt-in E2EE; they're doing mostly the best they can with a tough hand to play.)
- corvec 3y agoIt's more like: - If you use our client you can use our servers - If you don't use our client, you can't use our servers, but you can use any other server It's like, technically it's sometimes[1] OSS, but they don't care about actually being FOSS in practice. If I can't fork the software, add or remove a feature and keep using the software's other features, it hasn't hit the bare minimum to be called FOSS, IMO. 1 - Most old versions of Signal are OSS, but frequently updates are only shared after a long delay - in some cases over a year out of date, if my memory serves me.