@adiz lol my bad - my tut client mixed up the threads.
The only alternative I see to Matrix right now is XMPP. I still run my own server. But it doesn’t come even close to compete with the number of available bridges (that’s actually the main thing I use Matrix for).
The only thing that can still compete with Matrix when it comes to bridges/integrations is still IRC+bitlbee. But that ecosystem is literally falling apart, it’s largely based on libpurple extensions that often haven’t been touched in years, and of course you can forget decent mobile-native clients.
Or maybe just run alternative servers to Synapse, but so far I’ve had a mixed experience with them - Conduit is definitely snappier, but I’ve had trouble to set up many of my bridges, which seem to be primarily designed for Synapse.
@Goffi integrations like Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp mostly rely on libpurple plugins (like purple-gowhatsapp or purple-instagram) that are either poorly documented, more unstable or lack many features that are available on Matrix bridges.
By own admission of some of these developers, they usually don’t test their plugins against Spectrum2, and mileage may vary a lot. And usually when one of these plugins dies it takes the whole service down with it.
I’m in general a bit unimpressed with the state of libpurple - I feel like it’s becoming a very aged ecosystem maintained by a very limited number of developers that have to make those plugins work for a very wide range of clients. That’s also the reason why I left bitlbee.
Slidge seems to be promising, but I feel like it’s still at an immature stage.
@fabio I don't think that libpurple integration is great indeed, I've just mentioned it because you were talking of bitlbee, and spectrum2 is the XMPP equivalent.
Slidge is working on tight integration and is the way to go. And Telegram and Whatsapp are supported (I don't see Instagram though).
My point is that gateway ares part of XMPP ecosystem since the early days, and there are many. You say that you use Matrix mainly for its bridges, and I think that XMPP offer is similar.
@fabio@adiz Are you following slidge development yet? For me it offers pretty much everything I might need in terms of bridges except for #IRC, but Biboumi already exists to take care of that one.
Slidge doesn't look very mature yet, but given some time it may be the thing we were missing. I wouldn't mind some cleaner #XMPP clients for desktop use either, but the existing options aren't all terrible at the least.
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