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Ring, officially a GNU package

blog.savoirfairelinux.com

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Re: Ring, officially a GNU package

#21

Post by drdaeman »

nextos wrote: post #15
irl_ wrote: post #10

The DHT system for identities is cool, but the thing that gets me is that they don't have support for SRTP with ZRTP, only SRTP with SDES. There's no perfect forward secrecy, and a bunch of other features that ZRTP has. https://www.silentcircle.com/products-and-solutions/technolo...

Yes, that's true. A more comparable thing to Signal is Matrix [1] and it's client Riot [2]. Theoretically, it has perfect forward secrecy. It's not as distributed as Ring is, but there is no centralized server as in Signal either. Riot is also in F-Droid. So while not a GNU member, I find it sufficiently open and free. A totally distributed approach with forward secrecy is Tox [3]. It needs a good code audit, though.…

AFAIK, Matrix identity servers system isn't really decentralized yet. They're working on this, but it's not there yet.

Just saying.

Re: Ring, officially a GNU package

#22

Post by snvzz »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #20

Why this over Tox, Psyc, or Matrix? There doesn't seem to be much benefit...

I hear tox has been approached before, but they were uninterested.

Remember GNU requires transferring rights to the FSF, which many aren't comfortable with.

I personally favor tox, because ec25519 and full forward secrecy. Also, not fond of SIP.

Re: Ring, officially a GNU package

#23

Post by snvzz »

geofft wrote: post #13

What's the advantage of being a GNU project these days? It seems like it ties you very strongly to the FSF's political opinions and in particular Richard Stallman's political opinions (e.g., eugenics) and restricts your technical decision-making options (e.g., limited plugin architecture, limited support for non-free OSes, mandatory support for things like GNUTLS), while not giving you very much in return - with the…

> What's the advantage of being a GNU project these days?

I can't think of anything.

> and in particular Richard Stallman's political opinions (e.g., eugenics)

Utter nonsense. Being part of GNU doesn't imply agreeing with every word Stallman utters on any topic.

> restricts your technical decision-making options

Very real (see gcc and frontend/backend separation) and a very good reason to stay away.

Re: Ring, officially a GNU package

#24

Post by belorn »

snvzz wrote: post #23
geofft wrote: post #13

What's the advantage of being a GNU project these days? It seems like it ties you very strongly to the FSF's political opinions and in particular Richard Stallman's political opinions (e.g., eugenics) and restricts your technical decision-making options (e.g., limited plugin architecture, limited support for non-free OSes, mandatory support for things like GNUTLS), while not giving you very much in return - with the…

> What's the advantage of being a GNU project these days? I can't think of anything. > and in particular Richard Stallman's political opinions (e.g., eugenics) Utter nonsense. Being part of GNU doesn't imply agreeing with every word Stallman utters on any topic. > restricts your technical decision-making options Very real (see gcc and frontend/backend separation) and a very good reason to stay away.

Over half an hour before you posted, a project maintainer directly contradicted your post under this thread. The technical decision-making are made by the maintainers, not by the GNU project.

Did you just miss davexunit post?

Re: Ring, officially a GNU package

#25

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

snvzz wrote: post #22
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #20

Why this over Tox, Psyc, or Matrix? There doesn't seem to be much benefit...

I hear tox has been approached before, but they were uninterested. Remember GNU requires transferring rights to the FSF, which many aren't comfortable with. I personally favor tox, because ec25519 and full forward secrecy. Also, not fond of SIP.

Well, that explains some of it.

I heard tox needs a code review. Has its security been verified in any way?

Re: Ring, officially a GNU package

#26

Post by joecool1029 »

metilda wrote: post #3

Has ring improved much? I remember a few months back it used 28gb of background data over LTE (which was fine since I'm uncapped) on my phone, and was less stable than sflphone, which would randomly stop registering occasionally. I can recommend pjsip though, very reliable so long as you read its docs before writing a script to leverage it.

How was your battery life with that?

And most mobile clients use pjsip, at least non-commercial ones (aside from popular sipdroid). I don't know what Bria uses but if I lose signal it slams my battery. Unfortunately it also works best for my commercial line.

Csipsimple is an android implementation of the pjsip library. Taki is another for BB10. They are both fairly reliable. I don't know any on iOS (sry).

Re: Ring, officially a GNU package

#27

Post by nextos »

akermu wrote: post #19
nextos wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's true. A more comparable thing to Signal is Matrix [1] and it's client Riot [2]. Theoretically, it has perfect forward secrecy. It's not as distributed as Ring is, but there is no centralized server as in Signal either. Riot is also in F-Droid. So while not a GNU member, I find it sufficiently open and free. A totally distributed approach with forward secrecy is Tox [3]. It needs a good code audit, though.…

I think you meant "but there is no centralized server as in _Signal_ either"

Fixed, thanks.

Re: Ring, officially a GNU package

#28

Post by paroneayea »

snvzz wrote: post #22
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #20

Why this over Tox, Psyc, or Matrix? There doesn't seem to be much benefit...

I hear tox has been approached before, but they were uninterested. Remember GNU requires transferring rights to the FSF, which many aren't comfortable with. I personally favor tox, because ec25519 and full forward secrecy. Also, not fond of SIP.

GNU developer here (MediaGoblin lead developer). GNU projects get to decide whether or not to do copyright assignment to the FSF. As an example, MediaGoblin and Guix don't require copyright assignment, while Guile does.
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