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 was trying to think of what the impactful differences between IRC and Matrix are (it’s been a while).
“While being as open as IRC, Matrix provides a user experience which is similar to Slack or Discord to some extent. It’s modern, it’s persistent, and […] it’s actually less confusing to newcomers than an extremely simple application like Jargonaut.”
Persistancy! It’s funny how that completely slipped my mind. The expectation from a chat room app has changed a lot since I last regularly used IRC and I guess I forgot what it used to be like.
“Forks of the project are welcomed. Nobody can stop the code from living on.”
That’s a tear jerking quote right there. o7
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.
Why have preinstalled apps though?
To make it easier for people.
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).
If that was the case they would add a step in the installation giving you the option to have no preinstalled apps and choose between currated apps based on your expected use for this pc.
I dont argue that its a great service. I am slightly opposed on it being a forced option
Mint is aimed at normies. The fewer barriers to entry, the better. If you give users the option for a “clean” install there will be people who select it, not knowing what they’re doing, and then end up with a borderline non-functional computer as far as they’re concerned. To put it another way, they expect it to have stuff pre-installed. Finally, what counts as essentials and what counts as bloat? Text editor? Media player? Photo viewer? Internet browser?
That being said, I understand why you might not like getting extra programs you didn’t ask for. Luckily, they’re very easy to uninstall and forget about.
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.
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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.
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