tl;dr :
- Hexchat IRC client app development stopped
- Linux Mint team was building IRC client to replace Hexchat
- The team tried Matrix and liked it
- Linux Mint’s communication channels are moving from IRC to Matrix
- The desktop app will be named Matrix to avoid confusion
I recently switched my main Linux laptop to Fedora and I have to say, it’s probably the most stable and clean distro I’ve ever used.
Happy for you… but isn’t this thread about Mint?
Is that a way to say “by the way I use fedora”? 😀
Why have preinstalled apps though? Hear me out… i am very new to Linux and enjoying it quite much.
But most of the preinstalled programs that came with mint, i have not touched and never will.
That does not make any sense if you read my comment. This is my point exactly. They are not saving me any time because i won’t use matrix and i wouldn’t have spent time installing it. . They may even be making it harder for me if i chose to uninstall it
You’re not the only user. Other people may benefit even if you personally don’t. Getting software you don’t want is a compromise for getting an easy out the box installation that comes with what you want already pre-installed.
If you want a more personalized approach there’s always forking a distro and customizing it so that it suits your needs (which is how Nobara came into being).
Because when interacting with other people to do something together it is more convenient not having to encourage them to install something. Like preinstalled Magic Wormhole for file sharing or something for remote desktop. FTP client is a must. Chat is nice to have.
I use Arch btw.
Some will use the built in note editor, some the built in music player, some the built in video player, and now some will use matrix
Mint isn’t overly bloated, or even “bloated”, these apps are useful for a decent part of the demographic, and having them preinstalled lowers the friction a new user feels when installing a new OS
Why not use Beeper?
I like beeper, but it forces you to use a beeper.com account, and the mint devs couldn’t make it autojoin the support room
I‘m not sure if I like this. I use Matrix for a couple of years now and to be honest the more I use it the more I hate it.
Everything just feels slow, clunky and some basic things are quite complicated to archive and some functionality just does not work.
All that was okay for me in the beginning but it never got better.
IRC and XMPP also had their problems but I often wish them back nowadays.
I think Matrix is the future, it just needs better designers and implementation.
They really, really shouldn’t do things differently than discord just to be different.
Looks like you’re saying federation is the future, but Matrix is a bad federation implementation. And that sounds good.
I still think forums are the best way to handle support. Even phpBB is better than any chat. Have a bot alert a chat channel that the project team hangs out for every new topic or something, if that’s a concern.
I still think forums are the best way to handle support. Even phpBB is better than any chat. Have a bot alert a chat channel that the project team hangs out for every new topic or something, if that’s a concern.
Giving the users the choice to have IRC and a forum sounds nice to me. Forums for the longer conversations and be able to look up things with a search engine, and IRC for quick questions and informal chat.
We dont really use/experience matrix. Same as we dont really use/experience debian, fedora, etc.
We are experiencing the clients (same as we experience the DE in the second example).
It does not make sense to hate on the protocol for clunky clients, same as it does not make sense to change distros because gnome isnt your thing, except if your OS doesnt handle anything else.
I had this discussion a billion times already. Element is not matrix and every other client is produced by actual people with very little money.
Be the change you want to see and make a client or donate to someone who makes the most promising ones instead of moaning about the good ol days please. Have a good one.
Everything just feels slow, clunky and some basic things are quite complecated to archive
It’s been that way for much longer than a few years unfortunately. I don’t understand how people can tolerate it. Some projects switched to it because it seemed more beginner friendly than IRC, but to me it’s not focussed on making things easy.
My problem with matrix is that you need email address to use it. Compared to the irc, where you could just use whatever name and ask questions straight away. Most distros I used came with an irc client preinstalled and preconfigured to connect to the support channel when launched. In my opinion that is more beginner friendly.
