Internet messaging is so broken that FB alone owns 3 incompatible apps. Google has *6*, not counting the ones they canceled: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/05/google-unifies-messenger-teams-plans-more-coherent-vision/
I miss Yahoo's IM as it was a good tool to use to start a live game with a friend... I used to play checkers with my daughter .... many years ago.
@kyle OK, for companies like FB and big G, but what's the explanation for Signal and Telegram not trying to make things compatible? I don't think they're making money out of their apps, are they? Or worse, for Signal not being able to send an encrypted SMS to SIlence?
@kyle man, wait until you hear how many Linux distros there are
@tomosaigon FOSS's duplication of effort is nothing compared to proprietary software, which reinvents every wheel with new proprietary protocols clients and servers every time and when they inevitably abandon the code, it is just thrown away.
All those distros are sharing a LOT of tech, protocols and code between them and there is a lot of compatibility between them. The differences between them are small compared to the similarities.
@kyle the proprietary software you talk about reuses lots of tech, lots of existing (open source) software, lots of servers. It's definitely comparable.
It doesn't have to be this way. Messaging isn't complicated. We solved this more than a decade ago. You have five incompatible messaging apps on your phone because greed drives companies to ignore compatibility and optimize for vendor lock-in. https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/lessons-vendor-lock-messaging