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RocketChat: Slack-like online chat, built with Meteor

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Re: RocketChat: Slack-like online chat, built with Meteor

#81

Post by chralieboy »

syedatif wrote: post #56
chralieboy wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are running a business, you use tools to make your life easier. The reason I pay for Slack is precisely so I _don't_ have to push fixes upstream. Tools are a means to solving a problem. Something being open source is not by itself a plus. I don't want to be developing a chat client so I can use it, I want to build my own fucking company.

So...don't use it. Honestly, there are other people here that will see this link and go "hey I want to add this feature in this" and the tool becomes better. Once it does I am sure you're gonna come back and leech on it.

Obviously I have the option not to use it, but we can still have a discussion about the pros and cons.

What I'm saying is that "pull requests welcome" is a really lazy way of telling someone to support themselves. That's fine if you have a unique set of needs, in that case you should be building things out specific to you.

For something like chat, most people have a very similar set of requirements, paying Slack a couple of dollars per month to handle it is awesome. Would it be cool if Slack were opensource? Maybe, but that isn't why people would use it even if it were. It works really well, there is a team behind it that is paid full time to develop new features, and we can focus on building our own company instead of using bandwidth building tools for basic functionality.

That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement, but the places for improvement in Slack aren't that it isn't open source.

Re: RocketChat: Slack-like online chat, built with Meteor

#82

Post by marceloschmidt »

decaprime wrote: post #74

I've been building https://github.com/mattfeldman/nullchat , a meteor chat application as part of a commit-a-day pledge of working with meteor. I think the reason there are a few of these popping up is that it's a lot of fun to build a chat application with meteor. I never intended to be a 'clone' of slack as as much as rocketchat or spacetalk. I've been running it for a small group (~10 active daily users) for about…

Would you be willing to join efforts with Rocket.Chat? There's a lot of neat stuff on nullchat that could be really useful there.

Re: RocketChat: Slack-like online chat, built with Meteor

#83

Post by spacelizard »

chralieboy wrote: post #38
hardwaresofton wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, there's nothing stopping your company from making the product better. You shouldn't be spending 2 hours each day solving the same problems. If you make fixes, push them upstream (and others will too), then everyone gets a better product.

When you are running a business, you use tools to make your life easier. The reason I pay for Slack is precisely so I _don't_ have to push fixes upstream. Tools are a means to solving a problem. Something being open source is not by itself a plus. I don't want to be developing a chat client so I can use it, I want to build my own fucking company.

Another company offering SaaS products is not a plus by itself either. The idea of "pay us so you don't have to push upstream fixes" is just another spin on the usual marketing agenda for cloud-based companies. Either way when running a business you need to consider what kind of infrastructure you're investing in.

Re: RocketChat: Slack-like online chat, built with Meteor

#84

Post by lez »

aroch wrote: post #32
hobarrera wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also letschat: http://sdelements.github.io/lets-chat/ Dunno why people tend to flock over to the propietary option though. :(

> people tend to flock over to the propietary option Because it Just Works(tm) and there's no fiddling or faffing about necessary. I'm all for [FL]OSS applications, but sometimes proprietary solutions, even if they do the same task, are just easier to use and integrate (both technically and bureaucratically)

Then you put on a great deal of risk in terms of owning your data, having unwanted changes in the product, or Google acquiring (and closing down) your service provider.

Re: RocketChat: Slack-like online chat, built with Meteor

#85

Post by aroch »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #80
aroch wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people tend to flock over to the propietary option Because it Just Works(tm) and there's no fiddling or faffing about necessary. I'm all for [FL]OSS applications, but sometimes proprietary solutions, even if they do the same task, are just easier to use and integrate (both technically and bureaucratically)

In the case of something like Slack though, there's a huge business risk: Storing your confidential internal discussions with a random startup of questionable security practice.

True, but it also gives you an out if customer data is breached. You, with good faith, contracted a thirdparty to manage and secure your data. If you run your own Letschat and some exploit is found that dumps your chat db, you're/your company is on the hook.

FWIW, I don't and likely will never use or promote Slack for intracompany chat.

Re: RocketChat: Slack-like online chat, built with Meteor

#88

Post by lez »

aroch wrote: post #85
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of something like Slack though, there's a huge business risk: Storing your confidential internal discussions with a random startup of questionable security practice.

True, but it also gives you an out if customer data is breached. You, with good faith, contracted a thirdparty to manage and secure your data. If you run your own Letschat and some exploit is found that dumps your chat db, you're/your company is on the hook. FWIW, I don't and likely will never use or promote Slack for intracompany chat.

The opposite. If you install opensource software on you own servers, and make it available only for your company's intranet, you are perfectly safe from outside attackers. Proprietary software can also exploited or they can just sell your data for bucks, when they are about to bankrupt.
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