• Plume (She/Her)@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    So, if WhatsApp eventually fails, can we accept for at least just this once, to move on to something that is not proprietary and owned by a large company, please? Please, for the love of everything can we please for once move on to something that is open source and for just this once not repeat the same fucking mistake over and over again?

    • u_tamtam@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      I want to add “federated” to your list, as the only thing that actually matters long term. Signal checks your requirements but has already started to turn user-hostile (e.g. it mandates its own client so you get to have crypto payments whether you like it or not), and, as the single point of control, is an easy target and a single major liability.

      Remember the days when WhatsApp was nice to its users? There is no technical guarantee that other centralized systems won’t go the same path, which is largely mitigated when the network is made of smaller interoperable actors (i.e. a federation).

      I would love to see XMPP be rediscovered and massively adopted as that next gen messenger. I don’t trust Matrix to ever be reliable or get past their neverending funding troubles.

    • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Why do people still have faith in this broken system? Companies the size and reach of Meta, do not “fail”. Big companies like these have enough control and power to quash or simply buyout future competitors that would usurp them.

      There is no system where people vote with their wallets and we can shift control by way of consumer revenue alone. That dream died some 100+ years ago when companies grew large enough to overthrow governments (Chiquita Banana), shape societies (Walmart & McDonald’s) and build monopolies so resilient, they will control us into the next millennium (Google).

      If you’re all banking on the freedom of economy and capitalism self correcting, man is that a long wait for a train that won’t come.