this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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Privacy
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Simplex is pretty nice, but to me XMPP already does all that you described, and metadata isn't that important to me. Plus XMPP has better clients for mobile and desktop
For 1:1 and small groups, XMPP is not as convenient + not as secure
I like Snikket as a solution to this
but why isnt it secure? if you know that the other person is using the same version of omemo it is secure. and if you are self-hosting it, meta-data is no issue either
Actually xmpp is low on metadata compared to matrix which has to replicate a bunch of metadata everywhere. SimpleX look interesting, though by not being federated (considered by simpleX a privacy feature) whether you like their client or not. Just so you know privacyguides has explained why they don't advertise xmpp as privacy oriented, and the reason is not that it isn't, it's simply that given it's federated, they consider some clients are not as compliant or up to date, which is up to the user to select on XMPP, and also up to the user to file bugs against their preferred client or even contribute it with changes.
My stance is that XMPP and Matrix are only private if you self host and don't federate. That really cuts down on who may want to use them, but it can be great for a small community, company, or family assuming you can get everyone to buy in.
thank you for the info. that clears up some doubts I had with xmpp :)
My battery life & ability self-host on low-spec hardware is pretty convenient. When I talk to my bud on their own self-hosted, low-spec instance, the TLS+OMEMO is pretty secure since we don’t have to trust some third-party server provider with data/metadata.
Right, and completely agreed with that, but I think that SimpleX is just better in most cases (not on battery life for now), as it could be also self hosted
There is a cost aspect of self-hosting that one has to comtemplate. I haven’t looked at SimpleX hosting, but if it’s anything like Matrix on resources, it isn’t accessible or feasible even if it is possible.
I host a Simplex server, it is not that bad in terms of resources. My smp server is around 90 MB RAM and XFTP is 30 MB. Could be better, but still would run without problem on low-end hardware.
What about the storage & network costs?
I have not checked both, but seems like both are insignificant. From what I understand, the messages and files are only stored on the server until reception.
How dare you criticize some 90's protocol no one uses
Then keep using it. However, no one else is using in my experience and there so many apps and servers I can't keep it all straight. Not user friendly at all.
If you like and have people using it then that's fine but I wouldn't start using in 2024. There are much nicer systems.