derin

I like this reddit comment's explanation:

As someone said before, compare it to E-Mail.

Matrix ~ smtp/pop3/imap (protocol layer)

synapse ~ sendmail/postfix/dovecot/exchange/... (server)

element, fluffy, ... ~ thunderbird, outlook, pine, elm, ... (clients)

Everyone can host it's own server and have it's on private chat cloud. Thats like E-Mail and other opensource chat servers like Rocket.Chat, Mattermost and so on.

But like for E-Mail, it is easy possible to federate with others (like mail: "talk" to other mailservers), to be able to chat with people on other Matrix Servers. That's the difference to most of the other opensource chat.servers, which are stuck to their cloud.

As for EMail: Choose your best weapon, will say, client or server software. The protocol is free and will stay free. At this time, there's mainly synapse as the reference implementation from matrix.org and upcoming dendrite, but more servers will be available in future I think. At client side, theres element as the reference implementation and also some others, for example fluffy.chat.

Another cool feature ist bridging. The protocol specification allows bridges to other chat-systems, so you are for example able to talk to IRC-Servers or XMPP-Servers too. Many bridges are in development, less are stable. But more to come in future.

Matrix.org is "outsourced" from university and responsble for developing the specs. They are the big brain behind. They also server matrix.org as free service for people to test matrix or use it without having their own servers.

Element.io is also an outsourced company, which is developing element (reference clients). They are also selling hosted solutions to get money to the project.

Both are under the roof of the new Vector limited.

Because the Api is free, everyone can produce own servers an clients and (in theory) no one can take the whole network over. (in practice: if a big company does its own "cool" non open addons and has enough users, the same shit as for xmpp and WhatsApp could happen...)

Because everyone can host its own servers *and* optionally federate, the same product can be used for high secure private chat-clouds, for example in hostpital, military, schools, whatever, but it can also be uses to talk everyone like e-mail or phone. *And* no one has the masterhost, so no one has all data and no one can change the rules overnight to get money, more data or whatever.

From functional side: Matrix is what some people call "modern", it has text chat, you can send files, you can do voice- and video-calls (in element: 1:1, for groups with jisi as backend) and send voice-messages (at least in fluffy.chat, upcoming in element also). You can also plugin things like etherpad or BigBluButton and send cute stickers if needed. You can structure your contacts with "spaces" (beta).

Element got better and better in the last year and is imho very easy to use for now, but with some last edges. Fluffy is somewhat easier some users as far as I've heared but not feature complete.

I hope, Matrix will be the E-Mail-Version of Chat in the future. I have reviewed some systems for my university and it was the only one from which I think it has the potential to do so. So, give it a try. It's great.

That latter point doesn't really apply if you leave America.

Yeah, really don't get this one. As an example, I've been supporting the guy who writes most of the software I use via Github sponsors for a while, now. It's nice to get access to additional support chat rooms and perks and stuff, but just the feeling alone is satisfying enough.

Feelsgoodman.jpg

I genuinely recommend those with gainful employment to consider supporting the people who make the software and media you like (E.g. Patreon).

Issue reports and the likes are nice, but they're really not a substitute for cash (in my opinion).

Yep, check out yabai.

I'm annoyed to see you getting down voted - I had a similar issue years ago with my work MacBook (couldn't run a custom WM because any modification to the Finder was blocked without putting the machine into "unsafe" mode).

I love OSS, but without a verifiable way to distribute it large swaths of the workforce won't be able to use it.

F-Droid is great, but sadly it isn't enough.

I've got a Remarkable Pro, and the old Remarkable 2. The Pro is pretty fantastic, re: refresh times.

For graphics an RX 7900 XTX, and for CPU a Ryzen 9 7900X.

I used to agree with this statement, but I'm no longer that sure.

I built a new PC a week ago, installed windows first then Linux. The idea was that I needed Windows for gaming.

Thought I'd try proton + Steam, regardless, just to see how it stacks up.

No performance difference. HDR works through gamescope. The window manager of the DE isn't insane and I can alt tab around my OS without problem.

Pretty good stuff. Still have windows for work and Valorant, but otherwise I play all my games on Linux these days. The only part that's lacking, in my opinion, is hot plugging controllers. Annoying that that doesn't work.

DHCP as in it's an ethernet connection to a residential router that provides the device with connectivity details.

Normally this isn't considered as secure as a bad actor can cut the power or connecting cables (e.g. If you're using dsl) to kick your system offline.

And, yeah, my old security system absolutely had an old 2G/EDGE modem to connect and send basic signals (as a fallback, in case of the above power cutting scenario). Was great.

It's bizarre.

In my last apartment, I literally had to fight to get a DHCP/ethernet + EDGE (yes, really) connection installed.

They kept asking me why I want two 😅

Yeah, I recently bought the GL-MT6000 and it's been great.

Turkish middle school, high school, and university exams are very serious.

Basically everyone takes the same set of long exams (with a few additions you can add to your standard exam sets, for specialized schools) and when the results come out, you are compared to all other students in the nation.

Like, think global leaderboards.

The best universities will outright reject you if your ranking isn't high enough.

It's very intense and cut-throat; so much so that - when I was a young'un growing up in Turkey - I just opted to try my hand at the SATs instead. Ended up going to school abroad.

The SATs were so easy, compared to the exam prep we did in our Turkish classes, it almost felt like a joke. Though, college tuition costs definitely made sure I wasn't the one with the last laugh.