From 4a3ed5fbe043dfc19f4ce7c10cb48c5c820762e3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Motiejus=20Jak=C5=A1tys?= Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2023 10:15:30 +0300 Subject: [PATCH] add matrix --- content/log/2023/matrix-declining.md | 87 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 87 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/log/2023/matrix-declining.md diff --git a/content/log/2023/matrix-declining.md b/content/log/2023/matrix-declining.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1fb3d1a --- /dev/null +++ b/content/log/2023/matrix-declining.md @@ -0,0 +1,87 @@ +--- +title: "My Declining Matrix usage" +date: 2023-08-31T09:00:19+03:00 +--- + +This post explains my journey with [Matrix/Element][matrix]. Here is a short +timeline: + +* 2020 November: read [A Matrix overview][lwn] on LWN and installed on my home + server. Added Messenger, Hangouts and WhatsApp bridges. "Bridges" meant that + I could read and write messages from FB Messenger, Google Hangouts and + WhatsApp using a single application --- Element (the application for the + Matrix network). After 2 evenings of installation hurdles I conveniently + reduced the number of browser tabs and phone applications I use for + messaging. +* 2021 February: convinced my brother to move to Element. Conversations between + us (which are second-in-volume after my wife) were now hosted by me. +* 2021 April: rest of the family to moved to Matrix. Much-reduced usage of + WhatsApp, Messenger and Hangouts. It felt great and liberating! +* 2023 July: switched my family to Signal. + +First year of Matrix was promising. Matrix posted good news about adoption to +their blog. I followed them closely in conferences (you can see my name in one +of the screenshots [here!][fosdem]). + +Then bugs started creeping in. + +The first thing I noticed is that [Element from f-droid][f-droid] would +sometimes not deliver notifications. Reading about it on forums revealed that +applications on f-droid use a different notification mechanism than Google Play +apps do. Re-installed Google Play version and it worked fine. Not much to be +grumpy about, but it would be a nice touch to explain this in the landing page +of the Element f-droid version. + +The second, and still ongoing, annoyance was *occasionally not being able to +see 1:1 messages from my family*, because it would fail to decrypt. [I am not +the only one][element-encrypt-bug]. I've been waiting for a fix since the very +beginning. + +The third was a brittle audio/video setup. Calls to my family were hit-or-miss: +sometimes they would work well, sometimes audio would be one-way or would not +connect at all. I followed the [manual][turn] to the letter, but it still +couldn't make it work reliably. I was a "VoIP expert" at some point in my +career, so troubleshooting this was not completely alien. But I still lacked +knowledge and/or persistence to fix it "once and for all", which meant I just +gave up on audio/video. *It should be easier.* + +Forward to mid-2023: +- I was not able to read a few important messages from my close family due to + above-mentioned "failed to decrypt" bug. +- Opening some channels with long history would take minutes. [I have been + warned][sqlite], so it's my fault. But there is a limit on how much complex I + want my messaging stack to be. +- My Matrix server was down for a week due to an upstream [bug][bug-sqlite]. + Same problem --- using SQLite --- but same answer as above. +- [Libera.Chat bridge got shut down][libera-bridge], which was a big use-case + for my Matrix use. As of writing it's been 27 days without an update, so it + does not feel like Matrix folks are treating this shutdown like a real + incident. +- Audio/video calling got even worse: it would be a surprise if a call + connected successfully, and I lost motivation to debug it further. Should + audio/video be the only problem, I would probably muster. But this just added + up to the pile which I wanted to touch less and less. + +At this point I started looking for a reliable alternative. By now I had added +Signal to communicate with some of my friends. I explained to my family what +Signal is and asked whether it would be OK to switch. Everyone agreed, we have +done it. Now they even have a wider bubble of people to talk in that platform, +audio/video calling works reliably, and I don't ever remember missing a +notification. + +I still use Matrix to join channels of some open-source projects. The channels +are not encrypted, thus not hitting the "failed to decrypt" bug. I also wiped +the SQLite database (it was ~6 GB by the time), which made things very fast +again. I will leave my Matrix contact details and you can still message me on +Matrix. But honestly, due to all the reasons above, I prefer Signal by now, +even if it's not self-hosted. + +[matrix]: https://matrix.org/ +[lwn]: https://lwn.net/Articles/835880/ +[fosdem]: https://matrix.org/blog/2021/02/15/how-we-hosted-fosdem-2021-on-matrix/ +[f-droid]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/im.vector.app/ +[element-encrypt-bug]: https://github.com/vector-im/element-android/issues/1721 +[turn]: https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/v1.48/turn-howto.html +[libera-bridge]: https://matrix.org/blog/2023/08/libera-bridge-disabled/ +[sqlite]: https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/setup/installation.html#using-postgresql +[bug-sqlite]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/239833