Live data from Hacker News

Signal Is Back

twitter.com

51–60 of 158 posts

Re: Signal Is Back

#51
post #45
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because matrix (the open source protocol) is federated, you have options: matrix server (for self-hosting), SDKs, bots, libraries, etc. = https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now matrix clients = https://matrix.org/clients/ matrix bridges (to interoperate between matrix and other services like irc, slack, telegram, etc.) = https://matrix.org/bridges/ if you don't want to manage on your own, and simply want to…

How many users does matrix have? I tried it last fall on 2 different servers. (Hosting an own server is not possible on a small root server you can get for 5 EUR/USD a month, it requires signifcant resources.) My experience was a bit disappointing. It seems pretty overloaded already, especially the irc bridge. And we are talking of thousands of users. I'm pretty convinced that with millions signing up it would collap…

I have successfully hosted a Matrix server on the cheapest Hetzner VPS for like $3 and it was super smooth...

Re: Signal Is Back

#52
post #47
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because matrix (the open source protocol) is federated, you have options: matrix server (for self-hosting), SDKs, bots, libraries, etc. = https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now matrix clients = https://matrix.org/clients/ matrix bridges (to interoperate between matrix and other services like irc, slack, telegram, etc.) = https://matrix.org/bridges/ if you don't want to manage on your own, and simply want to…

Matrix is not ready for the general public. I am a user who can (mostly) deal with the horrible user experience of pgp. With matrix I immediately run into trouble that some of my chats could not decrypted the second day any more. The documentation is confusing, the spec has been changed less than a year ago IIRC and different clients a at different stages of implementation. Nothing that a random user could handle.

Not sure when you had your experience, but they improved on e2ee a lot and as long as you backup your recovery key you should never see "unable to decrypt message" warnings.

Re: Signal Is Back

#54
post #8

If you're still having delivery issues in any of your private conversations try "reset secure session" from the chat menu. It worked for me with a couple of my contacts.

For groups, I think you have to go to each member individually and reset it in the chat menu there.

Re: Signal Is Back

#55
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matrix is not ready for the general public. I am a user who can (mostly) deal with the horrible user experience of pgp. With matrix I immediately run into trouble that some of my chats could not decrypted the second day any more. The documentation is confusing, the spec has been changed less than a year ago IIRC and different clients a at different stages of implementation. Nothing that a random user could handle.

Not sure when you had your experience, but they improved on e2ee a lot and as long as you backup your recovery key you should never see "unable to decrypt message" warnings.

I keep advocating for a solution where the passphrase is not separate from the password (like what ProtonMail did). Otherwise it’s untenable for most users.

Re: Signal Is Back

#56
post #4

Congrats to the team. I am sure it must have been a stressful one. Some remaining issues: The desktop app on first message in any conversation says: "Partially sent, click for details". When retried, the message goes through, but is not synced with the mobile client (never appears there). PS: Happy Signal exists. It's easy to let inconvenience make you forget it sometimes.

not sure if its the same issue but https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1350631020756828160

Re: Signal Is Back

#57
post #25

Can somebody explain their financial model? How are they paying for the servers and stuff. The claim "No ads. No trackers." and that they are "free for everyone".

I kick in a few dollars a month, and recommend you do the same.

Re: Signal Is Back

#59

We rarely get to see an app have to grow suddenly like that. And with Signal being open source, it must be very educational to follow. Has anyone found a publication around what they had to do on the technical side (code)? Edit: Their server's repo hasn't been updated since April 2020. Why? https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server

Isn't Session good compared to Signal?

Re: Signal Is Back

#60
post #45
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because matrix (the open source protocol) is federated, you have options: matrix server (for self-hosting), SDKs, bots, libraries, etc. = https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now matrix clients = https://matrix.org/clients/ matrix bridges (to interoperate between matrix and other services like irc, slack, telegram, etc.) = https://matrix.org/bridges/ if you don't want to manage on your own, and simply want to…

How many users does matrix have? I tried it last fall on 2 different servers. (Hosting an own server is not possible on a small root server you can get for 5 EUR/USD a month, it requires signifcant resources.) My experience was a bit disappointing. It seems pretty overloaded already, especially the irc bridge. And we are talking of thousands of users. I'm pretty convinced that with millions signing up it would collap…

> How many users does Matrix have?

It's difficult to say, as the French government [0], German armed forces [1], and several thousand independent users/corporations/groups run their own servers. What we can determine is that matrix.org on its own has >10 million accounts [2] (search for "global visible accounts" in the link).

> Hosting an own server is not possible on a small root server you can get for 5 EUR/USD a month, it requires signifcant [sic] resources

A direct example of setting up Matrix is shown here [3], using a $20USD/month Digital Ocean droplet. It's a reasonable approximation, though inexact, as we don't know how many users this server will be supporting. This example is thrown further off, as it's the Matrix project lead setting up the server. He's likely in many rooms with high user counts and, as high user counts dramatically increase resource needs, likely needs more RAM and CPU than someone setting up a server for a group of friends.

I think it's gotten much easier to stand up a matrix-synapse server than when you last tried, and suspect you left with a bad taste after joining popular rooms that (due to how many users they have) lag much more than you'd typically experience. Perhaps I'm wrong and you did everything right just last week and still don't like it, but I'd encourage more people to see for themselves :)

[0] https://matrix.org/blog/2018/04/26/matrix-and-riot-confirmed...

[1] https://element.io/blog/bwmessenger-goes-live-for-bundeswehr...

[2] https://matrix.org/faq/

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDddKmdLEdg

Post reply on HN