Correction: Zulip is not centralized [LWN.net]

Correction: Zulip is not centralized

Posted Mar 9, 2026 1:14 UTC (Mon) by tabbott (subscriber, #60572)
In reply to: Correction: Zulip is not centralized by daroc
Parent article: Open-source Discord alternatives

In my view, Signal or Proton would be good examples of apps that are open-source but centralized and not federated. (Well, email is federated, but I think Proton has various services that are not).

If you can self-host a self-contained server, and thousands of people including the majority of actual users in fact do that, I don't think there's a serious sense in which it is centralized.

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Correction: Zulip is not centralized

Posted Mar 9, 2026 7:05 UTC (Mon) by zdzichu (subscriber, #17118) [Link] (1 responses)

FTR, Signal was federated some time ago. There was another client WhisperPush shipped with CyanogenMod for Android devices. Federation ended and was deemed "degrading user experience" and "holding back development".

Correction: Zulip is not centralized

Posted Mar 9, 2026 10:28 UTC (Mon) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link]

Or holding back Five Eyes¹ monitoring

1. They prefer to call themselves the "Five Sisters", amusing institutional sensitivity.