Session Private Messenger

[Cree]

I've seen a ton lately about getting Signal and telegram up to 100% functionality on Pinephone. I totally support this, however i want to ask everyone here thats working on those projects to instead, or also rather, consider putting effort into getting Session onto pinephone. This should be way easier as it already has a linux version. Should be as simple as scaling to fit the screen. Session is a more private fork from signal that does not use any personal identifiable info, does not require a phone number, and routes all messages through TOR nodes.

[linmob]

Session IIRC is a Signal fork, and so it‘s Linux client is essentially based on Signal desktop and uses Electron. Sadly, the Electron story (which is generally a bit difficult on Linux) especially on Wayland is still rough. Chromium‘s Wayland support exists, but

1. it has to be enabled manually via flags,

2. it has major issues regarding text input on both Plasma Mobile and Phosh.

Also, when I last checked, Session neither provides ARM64 binaries on their website and does not provide builds for ARM on Flathub, which makes testing the software more difficult as build processes for Electron apps are often not that straightforward.

I have Session on my list of things to look into, but given the fact that I don’t use Session and Session has been associated with the alt-right and I want to have nothing to do with that, the priority is really, really low.

[lacriz]

Session has been associated with the alt-right

Hi linmob,

Would you care to elaborate? I had no idea about that, sounds scary tbh

Thanks for all your work, I like your 'linux weekly' blog @ linmob.net a lot!

[ryo]

Session has been associated with the alt-right

Hi linmob,

Would you care to elaborate? I had no idea about that, sounds scary tbh

Thanks for all your work, I like your 'linux weekly' blog @ linmob.net a lot!

When it comes to technology, "alt-right" is simply another way of saying "not status quo approved competitor to a mainstream app or service".
The more relevant question would be, would you trust any service whether alt-right or alt-left or alt-center that requires Electron/Chromium to function?
Especially on a low spec phone?

[lacriz]

When it comes to technology, "alt-right" is simply another way of saying "not status quo approved competitor to a mainstream app or service".

I don't know -- by this definition the whole 'linux phone' idea would be alt-right which could not be further from reality.

The more relevant question would be, would you trust any service whether alt-right or alt-left or alt-center that requires Electron/Chromium to function?
Especially on a low spec phone?

That is a very good question indeed. I use signal-deskop now.. also electron based. Axolotl offers a choice between electron and qtwebengine (which is also chromium-based). I just noticed that signal-desktop spawns roughly 12 processes -- who is gonna watch what this complex mess of madness is actually doing / who is it possibly talking to? Like Mr. Cobain said: "Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you".

[ryo]

When it comes to technology, "alt-right" is simply another way of saying "not status quo approved competitor to a mainstream app or service".

I don't know -- by this definition the whole 'linux phone' idea would be alt-right which could not be further from reality.

I don't really see Linux phones as a competitor to Android or iOS, but like a libertarian project that happens to co-exist for those who want to have more freedom than the authoritarian options (Google Android/iOS).
This is the same reason why Linux on PCs never died; Linux never tried to compete with Windows and macOS, it's just a libertarian project that co-exists with the authoritarian systems (Windows/Mac).
And the Linux distro's that did try to compete with Windows failed big time.

I recall they're calling Pleroma "alt-right", the irony is that the vast majority of its users aren't even political, and the Fediverse in general houses more center-left and center-right libertarians than left (status quo) or right (alt-right) authoritarians.
Likewise, Telegram and Bitcoin both used to be "alt-right", until they all of the sudden weren't.
But to prevent this thread from being nuked, let's derail this train and put it back on the tracks it originally was on from here.

The more relevant question would be, would you trust any service whether alt-right or alt-left or alt-center that requires Electron/Chromium to function?
Especially on a low spec phone?

That is a very good question indeed. I use signal-deskop now.. also electron based. Axolotl offers a choice between electron and qtwebengine (which is also chromium-based). I just noticed that signal-desktop spawns roughly 12 processes -- who is gonna watch what this complex mess of madness is actually doing / who is it possibly talking to? Like Mr. Cobain said: "Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you".

I never understood why you need so many processes to begin with.
Performance is one of the reasons, the others being related to privacy/telemetry, system resources, bugs (apps written entirely in JS tend to be an endless pit of bugs), and so on.
My biggest concern with Signal is the fact it requires a phone number to sign up, which is always a major privacy and security issue.
And Session appears to make a telemetry connection to a Google domain (redirector.gvt1.com), which makes the whole point of it rather questionable.

[lot378]

Sorry to stick my nose in and go OT but "alt-right" is solely a branch of politics -- the adherents use social interaction technology that is "alt-tech" (because the regular platforms all banned them). May be "disruption" or "non-mainstream" fits for tech that is non-standard or not commonly used (and has no political connotations)? May be some other word is even better. That's it -- taking my nose out now.