> If they can’t fork it while still using your servers, and you refuse to allow federation, how the FUCK is it open in any way?
What makes you think you have a right to demand federation? Run your own server if you don't like how they're doing it. You have access to the source under a Free Software license https://github.com/WhisperSystems but of course you don't want to actually do any work, you want to complain about what other people do because they don't do it in the exact way you want it done for free.
> How are users supposed to be able to verify the software running on their own systems when you only allow binaries compiled by yourself to communicate with your users, abusing the lock-in effect?
> but of course you don't want to actually do any work, you want to complain about what other people do because they don't do it in the exact way you want it done for free.
Nah, I don't spend months of my own free time maintaining an open source IRC app, and working on creating tools to make IRC easier for users to use.
I don't actually spend time making open chat systems more useable to users, sure.
That accusation from you doesn't belong at all on HN, and is not only a personal attack, but also wrong.
I could just run a Signal fork with my own servers tomorrow, but one of my goals is to allow users to have one single place where they can send a message to a user, and it will arrive. No matter what service the other user uses, what app, what chat system, if they're on an obscure 20 people IRC network, on Signal, WhatsApp, etc.
My ideal goal would be a universal, federated protocol, but even having libraries for each protocol with a unified API would make things already easier.
And Moxie is fighting for the opposite.
He fights against any compatibility, and suggests I tell my mother to install yet another chat app, ignoring that her phone can't even install Signal in the first place because it only has 3MB of useable memory, left.
You and Moxie actively tell people to create more, and less interconnected, chat networks.
How the fuck is that going to help?
If everyone uses a different secure app, that doesn't help at all! People will just use the systems everyone has (case in point: usage of SMS in the US, or WhatsApp everywhere else), and thereby you ensure no one gets any security.
So stop insulting people you don't know, and claiming untrue motives to be theirs, just so you can justify your actions.
> My ideal goal would be a universal, federated protocol, but even having libraries for each protocol with a unified API would make things already easier.
And Moxie is fighting for the opposite.
Yet here you are, pissed off that your goals don't align with someone elses. Use your open source IRC app to talk to your mom and I'll use Signal to talk with mine. No one is forcing you to do anything. Considering your goals and ideas are superior surely whatever you're suggesting will become the one service everyone uses, problem solved.
What makes you think you have a right to demand federation? Run your own server if you don't like how they're doing it. You have access to the source under a Free Software license https://github.com/WhisperSystems but of course you don't want to actually do any work, you want to complain about what other people do because they don't do it in the exact way you want it done for free.
> How are users supposed to be able to verify the software running on their own systems when you only allow binaries compiled by yourself to communicate with your users, abusing the lock-in effect?
https://whispersystems.org/blog/reproducible-android/
> You only distribute through the Play Store, which doesn’t fully work with microG at the moment, requiring users to install spyware on their devices.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12689352