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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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Technology
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yeah... pragmatism beats purity every time: they're doing some great work, but to do that great work they have to fund it somehow... i think that open sourcing all of the functional components (the bridges) and keeping the shiny UI closed is a pretty good way of doing that!
i guess i get not wanting to used closed source clients too, but it's shades of grey: people shouldn't hate on them for keeping 1 part closed source!
Only problem is, the average user gets hooked to the shiny UI, not to the invisible backend.
When Microsoft bought Skype, they switched from a secure P2P network to a server-centered network easy to mitm... and the majority of users said nothing. Later on, they switched a few UI elements, and suddenly there was a user uproar.
If Beeper gains any traction, a shiny privative UI is their out to monetize/enshittify the service.
sure, but an open source UI isn’t going to change that… they’d just close the source!
sure you can fork it, but you can also just copy the UI to an open source clone
imagine if twitter were activitypub: kinda like having an OSS backend with a proprietary front end… i’d bet the move to mastodon would be far quicker… network effects keep people on twitter… same here with OSS backend: we can reimplement the UI and people will have the same experience
Based on the history of how Google Chat used XMPP to federate and basically siphon users into its closed UI, then defederate... I no longer trust anyone with a closed UI that's planning to offer "extra value" to its users.
If someone closed their open UI, you can always fork the last open version, which at least gives you an even start.
If ~~Twitter~~ 𝕏 were to switch to ActivityPub... I'd actually worry about people flocking back to 𝕏, back to their old networks and recommendation algorithms. Guess it's no longer possible, since 𝕏 pretty much destroyed the old Twitter environment, but I'd still worry... and with Elon wanting to make 𝕏 a "social network for everything", that sounds dangerously close to ActivityPub.
you’re missing the fact that google chat and XMPP is a totally different situation… they used an open protocol; they didn’t open their backend