Introducing Matrix 1.0 and the Matrix.org Foundation
Now, before you get too excited, it’s critical to understand that Matrix 1.0 is all about providing a stable, self-consistent, self-contained and secure version of the standard which anyone should be able to use to independently implement production-grade Matrix clients, servers, bots and bridges etc. It does not mean that all planned or possible features in Matrix are now specified and implemented, but that the most important core of the protocol is a well-defined stable platform for everyone to build on. On the Synapse side, our focus has been exclusively on ensuring that Synapse correctly implements Matrix 1.0, to provide a stable and secure basis for participating in Matrix without risk of room corruption or other nastinesses." The announcement also covers the launch of the Matrix.org Foundation.
Posted Jun 11, 2019 21:27 UTC (Tue)
by nickbp (guest, #63605)
[Link] (17 responses)
Matrix gives you simple HTTP APIs and SDKs (iOS, Android, Web) to create chatrooms, direct chats and chat bots, complete with end-to-end encryption, file transfer, synchronised conversation history, formatted messages, read receipts and more.
Posted Jun 11, 2019 23:39 UTC (Tue)
by JohnVonNeumann (guest, #131609)
[Link]
Posted Jun 12, 2019 2:18 UTC (Wed)
by cyphar (subscriber, #110703)
[Link]
I've been using Matrix for years and I'm really hoping it starts gaining more momentum so it's no longer this super-nerdy thing that I use to chat with my friends and family.
Posted Jun 12, 2019 2:31 UTC (Wed)
by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)
[Link] (8 responses)
Posted Jun 12, 2019 17:58 UTC (Wed)
by flussence (guest, #85566)
[Link] (7 responses)
At least now it's finally caught up to XEP-0387.
Posted Jun 12, 2019 18:32 UTC (Wed)
by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)
[Link] (5 responses)
XMPP is basically something like SMTP, but only even more braindead. The original XMPP used an infinite XML document that required a custom hacked parser to read - that's how braindead it is.
A lot of stuff was bolted on later on XMPP, but it has never worked properly. Most XEPs remained implemented at most once, with popular clients EVEN NOW not supporting basic features like message archive synchronization or search. Message encryption is also an afterthought in XMPP and is barely supported. I bet NSA loved it!
Matrix is from the start designed on the model of synchronizing state machines. Encryption (including for group chats!) is baked in from the start. Archiving is the core part of the protocol as is search.
Posted Jun 13, 2019 13:36 UTC (Thu)
by jkingweb (subscriber, #113039)
[Link] (4 responses)
Archive searching isn't implemented much (or even at all?), but synchronization is pretty common these days. Of the four clients I use (Conversations, Converse, Dino, Gajim), three do so, and the fourth may for all I know just be misconfigured. All four support message carbons, file uploads, and end-to-end encryption (though I don't use it), and I believe three of them support message correction. I wouldn't claim XMPP doesn't show its age sometimes and will always been a niche, but it's not as dire as you seem to think.
Posted Jun 13, 2019 15:38 UTC (Thu)
by pizza (subscriber, #46)
[Link] (3 responses)
Posted Jun 13, 2019 17:27 UTC (Thu)
by jkingweb (subscriber, #113039)
[Link] (2 responses)
File uploads admittedly take some effort, though, especially if you want to support Web-based clients who are hamstrung by the same-origin policy.
Posted Jun 13, 2019 17:32 UTC (Thu)
by pizza (subscriber, #46)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Jun 13, 2019 17:43 UTC (Thu)
by jkingweb (subscriber, #113039)
[Link]
Posted Jun 15, 2019 18:36 UTC (Sat)
by Arathorn (guest, #101018)
[Link]
As such, it is *precisely* the same attack you could also do with SMTP, SIP, XMPP etc.
In practice, what happens with Matrix is that the servers in the room back off exponentially until they’re retrying once every 24h. The biggest rooms in Matrix typically have ~1000 participating servers, so I’m not convinced it counts as a serious DDoS attack.
(It’s worth noting that we did have a bug in the retry schedule code that got fixed in synapse 1.0, but even then it wasn’t so aggressive to count as an attack. There was also a presence bug which caused presence to be more chatty than it should be which got fixed.)
Posted Jun 12, 2019 2:52 UTC (Wed)
by ncm (guest, #165)
[Link] (5 responses)
Anyway Purism says that's why they don't feel much urgency to port Signal to their phone. I think.
Posted Jun 12, 2019 8:27 UTC (Wed)
by shiftee (subscriber, #110711)
[Link] (4 responses)
The Play Store version uses Google's Messaging notification thingy, FDroid obviously doesn't.
A phone number or email address can be used but is not required.
Signal is great but it's just another silo.
Posted Jun 12, 2019 18:55 UTC (Wed)
by Herve5 (subscriber, #115399)
[Link]
Posted Jun 12, 2019 21:36 UTC (Wed)
by grothesque (guest, #130832)
[Link] (2 responses)
Posted Jun 13, 2019 8:13 UTC (Thu)
by shiftee (subscriber, #110711)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Jun 13, 2019 13:24 UTC (Thu)
by jkingweb (subscriber, #113039)
[Link]
Posted Jun 12, 2019 21:34 UTC (Wed)
by debacle (subscriber, #7114)
[Link]
Posted Jun 13, 2019 13:05 UTC (Thu)
by callegar (guest, #16148)
[Link] (2 responses)
I see that matrix uses a two-tier identity system with hidden Matrix user IDs (tied to the server one is upon) and public Third-party IDs (3PIDs) with identity servers mapping across them.
Does this mean that in this federated server one can move from a home server to another one while preserving his/her identity and all that comes with it (such as the ability for other people to find you and your ability not to loose all the past history of interaction with others)?
Having a single system of identities tied to the home server appeared to me as an item blocking most chances of success of other projects aiming at federation (e.g. mastodon). The idea of federation should be about having many smaller servers, that is no centralization, but as a previous lwn piece noticed (https://lwn.net/Articles/781205/), even systems meant for federation often "succumb to the centralised black hole". I got the impression that having a single identity system using the server name as part of the identity can be a major cause for this. I guess that no one would like to use a casual server/instance if having that server/instance going away means loosing your identity and having to start with a new one.
Posted Jun 15, 2019 18:27 UTC (Sat)
by Arathorn (guest, #101018)
[Link] (1 responses)
We are about to launch a mission post-1.0 to replace mxids with public keys however, as per https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/1228. This then paves the way to decentralised accounts: any server which hosts the private key of that user would be eligible to host that user’s data. It’s at least a few months off though.
Posted Jun 16, 2019 22:59 UTC (Sun)
by callegar (guest, #16148)
[Link]
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
Even Whatsapp hasn't got everyone, Signal never will either and they're not interested in federating.
You don't talk about Briar?
But I'm quite the newbie here, so the above may be wrong : please correct me!
Unfortunately, the F-Droid version seems barely usable because of high battery consumption. Since it doesn't use Google's "push service", it constantly keeps polling the server or so which ruins battery life.
This problem has been known for a long time. The XMPP client "conversations" (also on F-Droid, also not using any external "push services") demonstrates a solution to this problem.
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
"Matrix"? "Synapse"?
Introducing Matrix 1.0 and the Matrix.org Foundation
Introducing Matrix 1.0 and the Matrix.org Foundation
Introducing Matrix 1.0 and the Matrix.org Foundation
Introducing Matrix 1.0 and the Matrix.org Foundation