When the lockdown began and online classes became a thing I finally started to use my dad's old laptop instead of my phone for the hours upon hours of google meet and zoom classes.
Slowly but surely my frustration grew as the old i3 system with 4gigs of ram struggled with lags and screen tearing and more with just 2 tabs of chrome open.
As most of my work were done in a browser it didn't matter what platform or operating system I used. Since I could remember using ubuntu back on my school it lab I thought why not try linux. Fast forward to now 3+ years later and I use arch btw.
With the use of linux I got exposed to many communities that preach foss and digital safety and security. I was able to get most of my frequent contacts to switch from whatsapp to signal and fewer still to matrix.
Although I'd heard of xmpp I didn't try to look more into it because of how old the tech was.
A linux community friend told me about an xmpp app his senior built and asked me to try it out.
2 things I noticed straight from the get go
- Instant messaging that actually felt instant
- Flawless call quality despite being on cellullar data and not wifi.
I feel genuinely shocked and wonder why matrix even exists at this point. Well now begins my eternal struggle to try and get my people onboard.
Well I guess it is what it is.
Hey I mostly use IRC nowadays. Any recommendations for clients to get into XMPP?
Ah, a fellow Arch user! It really gives you a sense of control and it's the closest bet in terms of adjusting nearly every piece of software to your hardware without spending hours compiling programs.
While I never laid my hands on XMPP, I did make the bold switch to P2P chat services. My best friend made the switch, as well, though I did end up losing contact to most of my acquaintances and old friends, which I don't nearly mind as much as I initially assumed. It works for us and I no longer bother with people choosing maximum convenience over friendships.
can't comment on XMPP because i haven't tried it yet but i definitely can comment on linux; i've used alpine for a few years and i've got to say, it blew my mind when i first tried it. i went from windows to that (and in the meantime debian, elementary, openbsd and netbsd, etc.) and man am i glad i switched...