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Standalone Signal Desktop

signal.org

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Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#131

Post by stephenr »

axaxs wrote: post #128
stephenr wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those core, must have features right? "Oh no I can't use that business chat tool, it doesn't support smiley faces and cat reaction gifs".

Maybe relevant wasn't the right word. But it's what makes slack slack, over say, irc.

Disagree.

The key thing Slack offers most 'customers' (even those who don't pay) compared to something like IRC is the simple setup/use.

I say this as someone who hates Slack, but has had to endure it on a number of client projects.

Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#132

Post by fron »

AckSyn wrote: post #16
fron wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Desktop apps are supposed to be: native code That excludes every single .NET application. > well integrated in the OS Don't even know what you mean by this. > still working when the net is down Not necessarily, a "native" app for Signal still wouldn't work if the net was down. > and using system widgets and OS look&feel I guess that excludes pretty much anything built with Qt.

.NET is included with Windows and can't be removed.

Correct, but IL isn't 'native code'

Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#133

Post by axaxs »

stephenr wrote: post #131
axaxs wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe relevant wasn't the right word. But it's what makes slack slack, over say, irc.

Disagree. The key thing Slack offers most 'customers' (even those who don't pay) compared to something like IRC is the simple setup/use. I say this as someone who hates Slack, but has had to endure it on a number of client projects.

Respectfully disagree...group chat has been a long solved problem. The interface, features, mobile app, and simplicity set it apart.

Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#134

Post by fron »

raarts wrote: post #46
fron wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Desktop apps are supposed to be: native code That excludes every single .NET application. > well integrated in the OS Don't even know what you mean by this. > still working when the net is down Not necessarily, a "native" app for Signal still wouldn't work if the net was down. > and using system widgets and OS look&feel I guess that excludes pretty much anything built with Qt.

Well call me picky, but I find electron apps to be super wasteful and gobbling up memory like there's no tomorrow. Sure I can understand the reasons behind it, it's JavaScript, programmers for that are abundant, is multi platform because web, but still. If you look at the functionality offered versus the resources used it's just ridiculous. I'd like to see a graph of code/memory used vs unused in such binaries.

I completely agree that most of them are extreme memory hogs. I was just pointing out that the previous commenter's definition of a desktop application made almost no sense to me.

Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#135

Post by lewisl9029 »

nikisweeting wrote: post #57
amedvednikov wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

eul is a light (4 MB) native desktop client for all popular messengers: https://eul.im Signal support is coming later this year. Right now it supports Slack, Skype, Facebook, and Gmail.

Rambox (Open source) https://github.com/saenzramiro/rambox Franz https://github.com/meetfranz/franz These are similar apps. Though they do use Electron, they let you share one Electron instance for all your chat services.

Thanks for the links! I knew about Rambox, but wasn't aware of Franz. Looks excellent.

My main problem with Rambox when I first tried it was that it couldn't remember my sessions across restarts for some reason. A quick test shows that Franz doesn't have this problem.

Also, the API for adding new integrations looks delightfully simple [1]! I'll probably take some time over the weekend to try to port over some of the things I use frequently that aren't yet available. Though it'd be even better if it offered a first-class escape hatch to add simple integrations through the app itself like Rambox does.

[1] https://github.com/meetfranz/plugins/blob/master/docs/integr...

Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#136

Post by stephenr »

axaxs wrote: post #133
stephenr wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. The key thing Slack offers most 'customers' (even those who don't pay) compared to something like IRC is the simple setup/use. I say this as someone who hates Slack, but has had to endure it on a number of client projects.

Respectfully disagree...group chat has been a long solved problem. The interface, features, mobile app, and simplicity set it apart.

> The interface, features, mobile app, and simplicity

3 of those 4 things I would class as "simple setup/use".

I can imagine someone saying "we switched to/chose Slack/HipChat/etc over IRC because it's much simpler to administer and a lot more user-friendly for people to communicate with the team".

I cannot imagine someone saying "we switched to/chose Slack/HipChat/etc over IRC because I need my daily dose of cat reaction gifs"

Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#137

Post by swsieber »

kijiki wrote: post #110
nikisweeting wrote: post #55

Why no web app? Moxie closed https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop/issues/723 without giving any reasoning. Can someone link me to a blog post that explains why Signal is refusing to release a web version? I cannot run another Electron app on my computer, I simply do not have the RAM left. Signal as a web-app would allow me to put it inside of Franz or Rambox, where all my other chat services live. Right n…

In-browser e2e encryption is vulnerable to targeted attacks on specific individuals. The service (either intentionally or by virtue of being hacked) can serve up Javascript crypto code that either uploads plaintext, or subtly backdoors the crypto so it can be decrypted. And they can do this to just a single user, so unless you audit the Javascript every single time you load the page, you'd never know. A signed app is…

A signed app is only more secure if they load absolutely no code remotely, otherwise they open up the same channels of attack.

That said, at least they have the option of closing that hole with the electron app.

Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#138

Post by lambda »

swsieber wrote: post #137
kijiki wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In-browser e2e encryption is vulnerable to targeted attacks on specific individuals. The service (either intentionally or by virtue of being hacked) can serve up Javascript crypto code that either uploads plaintext, or subtly backdoors the crypto so it can be decrypted. And they can do this to just a single user, so unless you audit the Javascript every single time you load the page, you'd never know. A signed app is…

A signed app is only more secure if they load absolutely no code remotely, otherwise they open up the same channels of attack. That said, at least they have the option of closing that hole with the electron app.

> A signed app is only more secure if they load absolutely no code remotely

Which they don't. That's why it's not a web app.

Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#139

Post by axaxs »

stephenr wrote: post #136
axaxs wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully disagree...group chat has been a long solved problem. The interface, features, mobile app, and simplicity set it apart.

> The interface, features, mobile app, and simplicity 3 of those 4 things I would class as "simple setup/use". I can imagine someone saying "we switched to/chose Slack/HipChat/etc over IRC because it's much simpler to administer and a lot more user-friendly for people to communicate with the team". I cannot imagine someone saying "we switched to/chose Slack/HipChat/etc over IRC because I need my daily dose of cat rea…

My team uses slack because, alongside simplicity, the gif and emoji integration makes for a fun break from the grind. So, childish as it is, we love it.

Re: Standalone Signal Desktop

#140

Post by orange8 »

polpo wrote: post #120
orange8 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what do you suggest they should they use instead

They could use NW.js instead, which stays up-to-date with the latest Chromium version, including security updates. They usually release on the same day as Chromium. https://nwjs.io/blog/

Good answer. Some are just good at putting down solutions, and don't even have the courage to suggest alternatives.
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