Element is a client, matrix is a protocol, synapse is a mainline backend server. There are other clients (front-ends) and servers available on top of the matrix protocol. Hope that helps.

Is it part of some talk? Is it available online?

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4TZxj-Dq7s

What’s your work flow for needing to have a destructive crop?

I second both statements. I used Pixelmator Pro on a Mac for maybe a decade (before it became Pro), and it’s very good. I would highly recommend it to anyone on a Mac. Long ago they had 50% discount, I don’t know whether they still do discounts these days. It’s a one-time payment, so even without a discount they worth what they ask. If you work with the app all day long, every day, it’s such a pleasure after the ugly Photoshop. Pixelmator allowed me to forget Photoshop for good. And even allowed me to move to Linux, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40572874

Pixelmator Pro doesn’t work on Linux (it’s macOS exclusive, afaik), but it allowed me to stop being dependent on Photoshop and look for other alternatives. Krita is quite good on Linux. I cannot compare them as I’m not an artist myself, but for my use case Krita is good enough. Since it’s FOSS you can start with that easily.

Why was it a declaration of war?

Donated a few bucks to the Ukrainian army, so to increase chances of the author to continue working on this wonderful app.

I won’t be surprised if there are websites that load more than that already.

Yeah, very good. They created a situation when you simply cannot trust them on any product they have. A calendar, do you use it today? What if they’ll kill it tomorrow?

15 years ago, that was Photoshop that kept me back. I switched to macOS a couple of years later. Now, I switched to Linux, ditching Photoshop. So far so good. I can stand the life without Photoshop, but tolerating macOS or Windows is above me.