On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 07:18:29 -0400 (EDT)
Jiri Eischmann <jeischma(a)redhat.com> wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ananda Samaddar" <ananda.samaddar(a)zoho.com>
To: desktop(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2015 7:29:20 PM
Subject: Re: Re: Instant Messaging in Fedora Workstation
I'm a bit concerned about the enthusiasm for Telegram. The clients
may be FOSS but the server software isn't. In addition to this the
use of a central server is troubling with respect to metadata
collection.
Has anyone considered Tox? It's a FOSS replacement for Skype and
doesn't rely on a central server. It's still in a pre-alpha state but
has several working clients. I've tested qTox and it works nicely
with sound and video through a firewall. There was a Gtk client
(Venom) but it's deprecated.
A large project like Fedora being interested in Tox could make all the
difference and increase traction to help move it towards a stable and
feature complete release. I've noticed several people mentioning OTR.
Tox has encryption built in.
I could go on about it but the information is on their website and the
code is available for perusal.
Ananda
Tox was also mentioned by several users, but the number was much
smaller compared to Telegram. There is a Tox repository available in
Copr BTW:
https://copr.fedoraproject.org/coprs/gnikandrov/tox-im/
The server part of Telegram is closed source, but they've promised to
open source it when it's ready. The API/protocol is open, existing
clients are open, the server side is promised to be open in near
future. I don't think Telegram scores badly in terms of openness.
What they're not planning is an infrastructure of independent servers
though.
Jiri
Therein lies the biggest issues with Telegram: it depends on proprietary
server code and also federation is not planned. I consider these to be
significant problems. Telegram 'promising' to release the code to
their server is not good enough in my opinion. I hate to go
Stallman (although I have the utmost respect for RMS) on you but
Telegram users are still tied to the perceived and/or actual benevolence
of the server vendor.
Tox is already p2p and cross platform. The only cross platfrom FOSS
voip application that springs to mind is Jitsi. Tox works through a
firewall; both my machines have the default firewall settings from the
netinstall iso, i.e. fairly restrictive.
If popularity is an important criterion then surely Skype would be top
of the list for inclusion in Fedora and Gnome. For reasons too obvious
to state that won't and shouldn't happen. There appears to be a
chicken-egg scenario here unfortunately with regards to Tox.
Ananda