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Jami "Taranis" released

The Jami communication tool has released a major new stable version called "Taranis"; the blog post announcement explains: "Taranis, the Gallic and Celtic god of the sky, lightning and thunder, will be the baptismal name of this new version of Jami." The mailing-list announcement describes the tool this way:
Jami is a GNU package for universal communication that respects the freedom and privacy of its users. Jami is an end-to-end encrypted secure and distributed voice, video, and chat communication platform that requires no central server, and leaves the power of privacy and freedom in the hands of users.

Another recent blog post gives an overview of Jami for video conferences. The new release has improvements throughout the system, including the first phase of Swarm support, which are "fully distributed, peer-to-peer chats with conversation histories synchronized across your devices, and the potential to be expanded into group chats in upcoming future releases of Jami".


From:  Amin Bandali <bandali-AT-gnu.org>
To:  jami-AT-gnu.org, info-gnu-AT-gnu.org
Subject:  Jami Taranis released [stable]
Date:  Thu, 23 Dec 2021 16:44:55 -0500
Message-ID:  <87pmpnq9m0.fsf@gnu.org>
Archive-link:  Article

The Jami team is pleased to announce a major release of Jami, Taranis.
You can read the full announcement article on the Jami blog:
https://jami.net/taranis-a-major-release-of-jami


What is Jami?
-------------

Jami is a GNU package for universal communication that respects the
freedom and privacy of its users.  Jami is an end-to-end encrypted
secure and distributed voice, video, and chat communication platform
that requires no central server, and leaves the power of privacy and
freedom in the hands of users.

Jami supports the following key features:

- One-to-one conversations
- File sharing
- Audio/video calls and conferences
- Screen sharing in video calls and conferences
- Recording and sending audio/video messages
- Functioning as a SIP phone software


Jami Taranis release highlights
-------------------------------

The highlights of the Taranis release of Jami include:

- Windows 11 support
- Phase one of Swarms: synchronized 1-to-1 conversations
  - The first phase of Swarm support in Jami is now available
    across all platforms.
  - Swarms are fully distributed, peer-to-peer chats with conversation
    histories synchronized across your devices, and the potential to
    be expanded into group chats in upcoming future releases of Jami.
    See our earlier article Swarm: a new generation of group
    conversations[1] to learn more about Swarms.
  - In the first phase of Swarm support, Swarms enable synchronization
    of 1-to-1 conversations across multiple devices associated with
    the same account.  See the full release announcement linked above
    for more details.
- Improvements to conferences and rendezvous points:
  - fine-grained moderation tools for conferences,
    such as 'moderator mute' and 'kick'; 
  - 'raise hand' feature for indicating intention to speak; and
  - enhanced screen-sharing now allowing sharing individual windows,
    in addition to the already-available options of sharing the entire
    desktop or a selected screen area.
  - Read more about these enhancements and new features for
    conferences and rendezvous points in our recent article
    The Jami conferencing system[2].
- New Android call interface and improved mobile connectivity

For a detailed changelog see[3].

[1] https://jami.net/swarm-introducing-a-new-generation-of-gr...
[2] https://jami.net/the-jami-conferencing-system
[3] https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/jami-client-gnome/-...


Download Jami Taranis
---------------------

Pre-built Jami binaries/packages for various GNU/Linux distributions
and other platforms can be downloaded from https://jami.net/download.
If you had previously installed Jami from the repositories of your
GNU/Linux distribution of choice and it has not been updated for a
while, you can instead install Jami following the instructions at the
above link for regularly-updated Jami packages.

Here are the compressed sources:
  https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/jami/jami-20211223.2.37be4c3.tar.gz   (53MB)
  https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/jami/jami-20211223.2.37be4c3.tar.xz   (51MB)

Here are the GPG detached signatures[*]:
  https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/jami/jami-20211223.2.37be4c3.tar....
  https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/jami/jami-20211223.2.37be4c3.tar....

Use a mirror for higher download bandwidth:
  https://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html

Here are the SHA1 and SHA256 checksums:

81bcdaadbc9a96c76f9238908ce2cdc4a3f797b8  jami-20211223.2.37be4c3.tar.gz
ee92877382287a6b8d6772effd54773249b8ed54  jami-20211223.2.37be4c3.tar.xz
5d70265d0010a7c4ace4e4f3a417c8be293f55bdd0cdbc3dfa610f18fb633b74  jami-20211223.2.37be4c3.tar.gz
fef0e9cd1f60a71011f08a152c490f412c786f9525ca2bb8a180f2bdbb91f44c  jami-20211223.2.37be4c3.tar.xz

[*] Use a .sig file to verify that the corresponding file (without the
.sig suffix) is intact.  First, be sure to download both the .sig file
and the corresponding tarball.  Then, run a command like this:

  gpg --verify jami-20211223.2.37be4c3.tar.gz.sig

If that command fails because you don't have the required public key,
then run this command to import it:

  gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys BE6273738E616D6D1B3A08E8A21A020248816103

and rerun the 'gpg --verify' command.
-- 
If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package,
see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.


to post comments

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 24, 2021 17:50 UTC (Fri) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link] (7 responses)

From the feature set, this sounds like it wants to be a better clone of what Skype was before M$ bought and destroyed it. Maybe they should lean into that in their advertising, like Discord infamously did (before repeatedly screwing its userbase).

As it is, the only thing that stands out here in a heavily saturated market of too-cool-for-interop networks is “it's GNU!” — great if you want a way to communicate exclusively with other GNU fanatics, but otherwise a negative for most who understand what that implies.

Market isn't really saturated...

Posted Dec 24, 2021 18:19 UTC (Fri) by Herve5 (subscriber, #115399) [Link] (4 responses)

If you require
- open source apps
- encrypted comms
- serverless
- TOR-like channel scrambling,

actually there remain extremely few...
Briar, Session, Tox?
Does the new Jami swarm concept addresses channel scrambling?

The fourth criterion isn't negligible as ‘even’ my western European country, France, recently activated an international agreement to demand, and obtain, sender/receiver IPs in a recent very, very small issue (tracking people that merely wanted to organize demonstrations).

Market isn't really saturated...

Posted Dec 24, 2021 19:30 UTC (Fri) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link] (3 responses)

If you need Tor-like network obfuscation as a matter of physical safety from geopolitical threats, then absolutely do not use *any* software that runs on a bespoke mesh network. It'd take all of 5 minutes for a coerced ISP to query their metadata logs for customers exhibiting unusual P2P traffic patterns in a given place and time, assuming the mechanisms they have in place for obeying Hadopi don't automatically alert them first.

This is an inflatable pooltoy, not a life-preserving device.

Market isn't really saturated...

Posted Dec 24, 2021 20:00 UTC (Fri) by Herve5 (subscriber, #115399) [Link] (2 responses)

I'm no 'GNU fanatic' nor a 'geopolitical threat' :-)
But from your two posts I understand absolutely nothing is worth, then.
Should I register back to Skype?

Market isn't really saturated...

Posted Dec 24, 2021 21:55 UTC (Fri) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link] (1 responses)

You don't seem to be reading my posts in good faith at all. I'm done here.

Market isn't really saturated...

Posted Dec 25, 2021 3:25 UTC (Sat) by intelfx (subscriber, #130118) [Link]

As an impartial passerby, I can't help but notice that you yourself don't really seem to be commenting in good faith. Try to use less inflammatory bait language?

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 25, 2021 17:58 UTC (Sat) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link] (1 responses)

> As it is, the only thing that stands out here in a heavily saturated market of too-cool-for-interop networks is “it's GNU!” — great if you want a way to communicate exclusively with other GNU fanatics, but otherwise a negative for most who understand what that implies.

Is there an automated test suite? This type of tool is one of the hardest to test, emulating many hosts and various network conditions between them is a huge challenge. QA is what makes the difference in this heavily saturated market between which software is popular and which is not. Some tool does not work? Switch to another one, problem solved.

Whether the source of the product is available or not, the QA of company-sponsored software is usually unknown. It's like developers write bug-free code by magic (they don't). Maybe that's why so many open-source projects believe tests are not important: they don't realize they have to compete with something they don't know exists :-)

I couldn't find whether Jami uses WebRTC (which would save a lot of QA)

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Jan 3, 2022 17:44 UTC (Mon) by bandali (guest, #98538) [Link]

> Is there an automated test suite?

We do indeed have a test suite:
https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/jami-daemon/-/tree/...
https://docs.jami.net/coverage/

> I couldn't find whether Jami uses WebRTC (which would save a lot of QA)

Jami does not use WebRTC, at least not currently. The communication
stack is mainly PJSIP for media + OpenDHT for some messages.

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 24, 2021 22:27 UTC (Fri) by dullfire (guest, #111432) [Link] (2 responses)

Back when it was still called "GNU Ring" I thought it looked interesting. However when I ran into a python based build system with hard coded distro dependencies (and attempts to use the distro's package manager from the python script), I gave up since the work to build it would have been too large .

Maybe they've improved it (haven't looked), but that sadly cooled my interest quite a bit.

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 25, 2021 10:42 UTC (Sat) by rav (guest, #89256) [Link]

For what it's worth, I just found the current build.py script and it has package lists for distros based on apt, dnf, pacman and zypper, so maybe it will work for you now. https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/jami-project/-/blob...

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Jan 3, 2022 17:56 UTC (Mon) by bandali (guest, #98538) [Link]

To be clear, if you're referring to the build.py[1] script, it is *not* the "build system" for Jami, but rather a convenience script to install the dependencies from your distro's repos (for supported distros) and build the various parts of Jami for you. You certainly don't have to use build.py, and are more than welcome to do the installing of the dependencies and building of Jami's parts manually if you wish -- a good starting point would be our package definitions for various distros[2] or the package definition for each part of Jami in your distro's official repos if they've already packaged Jami.

For actual build systems, Jami currently uses/supports a mixture of GNU Autotools, CMake, and Meson.

[1] https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/jami-project/-/blob...
[2] https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/jami-project/-/tree...

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 24, 2021 22:44 UTC (Fri) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (9 responses)

How is it different from Matrix? Except for voice support, that is.

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 24, 2021 23:56 UTC (Fri) by KJ7RRV (subscriber, #153595) [Link] (4 responses)

Doesn't matrix support voice?

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 25, 2021 6:47 UTC (Sat) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (3 responses)

I don't think so? As far as I understand, there's no standard spec for VoIP signalling/transport over Matrix.

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 25, 2021 7:05 UTC (Sat) by KJ7RRV (subscriber, #153595) [Link]

Element for Android gives the option for both voice and video calling. It might be a nonstandard extension.

https://ibb.co/whYxDy7

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 25, 2021 8:14 UTC (Sat) by spaetz (guest, #32870) [Link] (1 responses)

Spec changing proposal:
https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/blob/matthew/gro...

It has, or rather it is on the way. Native audio/video which does not depend in a jitsu widget is high on their list.

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 25, 2021 8:18 UTC (Sat) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

Oh. They're making a mistake of separating video/voice data from the signalling path. Bad idea.

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 25, 2021 12:18 UTC (Sat) by Moarc (guest, #137864) [Link] (3 responses)

It's peer-to-peer instead of a federation of servers, with an identity based around the user's public key, for which you can optionally register a nickname (in a way which evokes the ever-fashionable blockchain, the nickname being tied to that key once and for all - I'm not sure if they're actually using a blockchain for this, though).

It also doesn't try to poorly reinvent XMPP.

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 25, 2021 22:25 UTC (Sat) by KJ7RRV (subscriber, #153595) [Link] (2 responses)

Doesn't being peer to peer imply it wouldn't work well behind NAT and firewalls?

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 27, 2021 2:55 UTC (Mon) by droundy (subscriber, #4559) [Link] (1 responses)

They run a TURN server to get through NATs. Seems reasonable. They also have a few other servers required for bootstrapping to the DHT, receiving push notifications while running in the background on mobile, etc.

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Jan 3, 2022 18:26 UTC (Mon) by bandali (guest, #98538) [Link]

Indeed. Though I'll just clarify that even though bootstrap.jami.net is used as the default bootstrap node, it doesn't have to be, and can be easily changed from Jami's advanced settings to point to any other reachable machine running OpenDHT -- including another device running Jami and OpenDHT on your local network. Or you could use a DHT proxy (disabled by default on desktop/laptop, but enabled on mobile as it helps reduce battery usage) instead of having Jami running an OpenDHT node on your device. Similarly to the bootstrap node, the address for the DHT proxy can also easily be changed to point away from the default servers. Likewise for the TURN server address.

More details in the Jami FAQ: https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/jami-project/-/wiki...

Jami "Taranis" released

Posted Dec 25, 2021 23:07 UTC (Sat) by callegar (guest, #16148) [Link]

My main problem with Jami is that it is ultimately SIP based, so you cannot use it easily together with other SIP clients because it wants the same ports. This should be no problem, because Jami claims to support "standard" SIP accounts, so there should be no need to use other SIP clients with it. However, its pool of audio codecs is so limited that it is almost impossible to use it with commercial SIP providers.


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