Wire open-sourced • Hacker News Board

Re: Wire open-sourced

#51

Post by laksjd » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 12:54 PM UTC

melle wrote: post #24

I believe all their good intentions and I do hope they succeed. But for me it's too early to tell whether their business model will hold. If they build up a sufficiently large user base, but fail to monetize it and sell the company to e.g. Microsoft or Facebook, then I doubt how much of their original privacy / openness remains. Another thing that I wonder about: Does being Swiss-based give them a privacy advantage?

It might be mostly marketing since the Swiss have long switched from a 'swiss banking secrecy' mindset to fairly open cooperation with EU and US investigators.

It's probably nevertheless better than being based in the US, just ask Lavabit ;)

Re: Wire open-sourced

#52

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 12:55 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Wire open-sourced

#53

Post by laksjd » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 1:06 PM UTC

They offer a password reset function. How does that work? Do they hold my private key in escrow? I'd certainly hope not! Or does the password reset work by creating a new keypair? If so, does this at least generate WhatsApp style security warnings for people chatting with me?

With some digging I've found a way to verify key fingerprints so that's nice, but it's manual, not QR assisted :(

Re: Wire open-sourced

#54

Post by laksjd » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 1:12 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #41

computator wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might charge for certain premium services in the future, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_Swiss#Business_model

If I read the TOS correctly, you are also not allowed to write any kind of chat bot against it. If the current hype for bots remains, bot access might be another thing to sell.

That might be hard to enforce given that the open source client will make creating unofficial bots fairly trivial.

Given that they already have Spotify and giphy integration I'm going to predict Skype-like monetization with sponsored integrations (e.g. Skype has those sponsored animated emoji things)

Re: Wire open-sourced

#55

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 1:12 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #41

computator wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might charge for certain premium services in the future, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_Swiss#Business_model

If I read the TOS correctly, you are also not allowed to write any kind of chat bot against it. If the current hype for bots remains, bot access might be another thing to sell.

[deleted]

Re: Wire open-sourced

#56

Post by y7 » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 1:31 PM UTC

stephenr wrote: post #48

arthurk wrote: post #43

Is there a way to download the OSX app without the Mac App Store?

Why, because a sandboxed app guaranteed to be from the author you think it's from is just too good a thing, and you prefer the heady rush of getting bombarded with MacUpdate spam when you get your apps? Fine, some developers don't want to use the MAS. Their choice. I don't understand users not wanting to use it. It's the simplest possible way to install an app and get automatic updates for those apps.

What MacUpdate spam?

Not using the Mac App Store gives you more control over your apps. It allows you to distribute apps to OSX machines without an internet connection, it allows you to rollback versions or choose not to update, etc.

Re: Wire open-sourced

#57

Post by happyslobro » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 1:44 PM UTC

I found a file that is available as either MIT or GPL. Or is it only available under a union of the terms of both licenses? An intersection? Who knows, IANAL. https://github.com/wireapp/wire-webapp/blob/0cf9bf4/aws/main...

Why do people copy the license all over the place like that?

Re: Wire open-sourced

#58

Post by jacek » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 1:48 PM UTC

I am a user. I switched myself and my family from Skype a few months ago and it has been great so far. Quality of video and audio is great, Android app works very well (better than web based desktop versions). And it also works in a browser, which is great for me (Linux user).

Re: Wire open-sourced

#59

Post by vasili111 » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 1:54 PM UTC

Where is Windows client source code?

Re: Wire open-sourced

#60

Post by stephenr » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 2:07 PM UTC

y7 wrote: post #56

stephenr wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why, because a sandboxed app guaranteed to be from the author you think it's from is just too good a thing, and you prefer the heady rush of getting bombarded with MacUpdate spam when you get your apps? Fine, some developers don't want to use the MAS. Their choice. I don't understand users not wanting to use it. It's the simplest possible way to install an app and get automatic updates for those apps.

What MacUpdate spam? Not using the Mac App Store gives you more control over your apps. It allows you to distribute apps to OSX machines without an internet connection, it allows you to rollback versions or choose not to update, etc.

> What MacUpdate spam?

It took me a year and threats to file complaints with the FTC&FCC to get unsubscribed from their bullshit emails. That's what spam.

> It allows you to distribute apps to OSX machines without an internet connection

This seems like a pretty rare situation these days, but even in that situation, if those machines can be given internet access once to authorise them (e.g. via a phone hotspot) you can just copy the .app bundles.

> it allows you to rollback versions or choose not to update

The Mac App store doesn't force you to update either. Admittedly it doesn't allow rollbacks, but you can always restore from a backup and then choose not to update. You do have backups right?