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   Linux Walt (@lnxw37j1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw37j1@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 02:38:53 JST Linux Walt (@lnxw37j1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}
   Years ago, I tried out GNU Ring (now GNU Jami) with some friends and family members. While I'm sure it has improved some since then, I don't believe they've dealt with the issues that we ran into, and those issues are why I still say today that GNU Jami is nowhere near ready for normal people to use.
   
   (1) When people today create an account on a communication service, they expect to be able to use that account on multiple devices, even at the same time. It was my experience that ONE device would receive a message, and for the other devices, it was like they didn't exist. I don't recall whether it was the same device every time, but I suspect that to be the case.
   
   (2) When people use communication services, such as a chat or instant messaging service, they fully expect to be able to send messages to their contacts even while those contacts are offline, and that their contact will receive any messages sent their way once they log in. But Ring / Jami didn't do this. In fact, at that time, I don't ever recall seeing an indicator telling whether a particular contact was online. I had to just send and wait for an error message.
   
   (3) Slow network. It was difficult to have a text conversation, because one didn't know whether the person on the other end was just slow to respond. At any rate, anything one sent or received seemed to take an exaggerated time to reach its destination. Remember when using Tor felt like getting dial-up, with the latency of the most distant satellites? Yeah, that's what GNU Ring / GNU Jami used to feel like.
   
   (4) Missing information, such as presence indicators (I believe that one has been fixed), message delivery indicators (important when the network is slow). There were lots of others, but I don't remember anymore.
   
   (5) I also remember the client software being ugly. It was so ugly that I wondered whether someone found a way to use Gtk+ on Android. (As I've said for over 20 years, Gtk is so butt-ugly that I can't understand why any non-GNOME desktops or software still use it.)
   • clacke likes this.
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     Alexandre Oliva (lxo@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 03:02:52 JST Alexandre Oliva

     in reply to
     you should really give it another try, using a current version. all of your five points applied at some (very early) points in Jami's history, but assuming they reflect its current status is just spreading FUD. it's no different from insisting that computers are giant, slow, building-sized pieces of equipment that nobody could carry around.
     
     FWIW, I have zero direct experience with its mobile apps, I don't even carry a tracking device. I find the Qt-based app on GNU/Linux-libre pretty decent, though I'm not so fond of GUIs that attempt to emulate attention-grabbing anti-patterns.
     Linux Walt (@lnxw37j1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} likes this.
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     Alexandre Oliva (lxo@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 03:03:42 JST Alexandre Oliva

     in reply to
     you should really give it another try, using a current version. all of your five points applied at some (very early) points in Jami's history, but assuming they reflect its current status is just spreading FUD. it's no different from insisting that computers are giant, slow, building-sized pieces of equipment that nobody could carry around.
     
     FWIW, I have zero direct experience with its mobile apps, I don't even carry a tracking device. I find the Qt-based app on GNU/Linux-libre pretty decent, though I'm not so fond of GUIs that attempt to emulate attention-grabbing anti-patterns.
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     Linux Walt (@lnxw37j1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw37j1@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 05:07:17 JST Linux Walt (@lnxw37j1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}

     in reply to

     • Alexandre Oliva
     @lxo I did re-download it 2-3 years ago with the idea of giving it another try, but none of my contacts would even touch it ... and I couldn't see any obvious differences.
     
     Now mind you, I've used it primarily on mobile devices (KDE used to have a Ring-compatible program but I never got it to do anything.)