Re: GNOME Chat and the future of instant messaging in gnome

[Daniel Pocock <daniel pocock pro>]

On 11/11/15 14:06, Bastián Díaz wrote:
> El 11-11-2015 05:12, Daniel Pocock escribió:
>
> > Charles Johnson wrote:
> >
> > > Wow... this looks very interesting topic, see
> > > https://mail.gnome.org/archives/release-team/2015-April/msg00050.html
> > > [1] I think there's an important point here. Consider that messaging
> > > is still used and protocols should be prioritized over others. Have
> > > many protocols in the same application is very useful, but now is not
> > > a priority, many popular messaging system are integrated into the
> > > website like facebook, Hangouts or Skype.
> >
> > For some people, those services you mention don't exist because they are
> > not based on open standards or free software and the only difference
> > between those products and a trojan is that the trojan doesn't ask the
> > user to agree to a privacy policy giving up all their personal data.
>
> That is a reality that must be considered. I think a new twist to a
> client based on open source protocols RTC can make a difference.
> Redeployments have to see how XMPP client on Android, provide the user
> interfaces and features that offer popular messaging systems - as
> Whatsapp -, coupled with increased security (OTR) and capabilities for
> audio/video (voice message feature), etc.
>
>
> > > So I think 3 protocols must be strengthened and supported in gnome-chat:
> >
> > It is not just about chat: it is viable for voice and video too. I have
> > used Empathy for many webcam calls with XMPP users.
>
> Gnome-chat is proposed name for an application for RTC in gnome:
> https://wiki.gnome.org/Design/Apps/Chat
> Voice and video is central in communications today.
>
> > > SIP: ReSIProcate is a recent project that enhances SIP support and
> > > plans to be used with Telepathy:
> > > https://www.resiprocate.org/Telepathy_Connection_Manager
> >
> > This actually offers an opportunity to leap-frog many of the other
> > clients. There are two parts to this:
> >
> > a) get reSIProcate working with Telepathy: this brings the benefit of
> > having a well-maintained SIP stack, with comprehensive support for
> > things like IPv6 and TLS (other SIP stacks don't cover those very well)
> >
> > b) adapting reSIProcate itself to use libjingle as the media stack.
> > This will let it inter-operate with WebRTC, e.g. anybody in a browser
> > will be able to call a GNOME desktop user.
> >
> > The combination of these things will make it work reliably in many more
> > situations and make a very, very compelling solution. E.g. the TLS
> > support helps get SIP through NAT and the WebRTC media stack has many
> > ways to get the audio and video through NAT.
> >
> > Hundreds of millions of people have already updated their browsers to
> > versions that support WebRTC, being able to interact with them directly
> > from GNOME would be amazing.
>
> That sounds great as a development opportunity.
>
> > > XMPP/Jingle: Free messaging by definition. It includes Gabble and Salut.
>
> > > Telegram: New protocol, multi-platform, open source and very safe.
> > > There are some related projects:
> > > > > https://github.com/majn/telegram-purple [3]
> > > https://github.com/TelepathyQt/telepathy-morse [4]
> > > These three protocols can be a solid base to offer chat services
> > > gnome. There are other protocols supported in >>Telepathy, but may be
> > > offered externally depending on user/business requirements
> > > (groupwise, sametime, silc and >>zephyr)
> >
> > It is a chicken-and-egg problem. Once the underlying protocols are
> > stronger, there will be more incentive to improve the Empathy UI or make
> > an alternative. Therefore, my suggestion is to start with the
> > underlying protocols and infrastructure to support them.
> >
> > With that in mind, I have already deployed SIP services such as
> > https://rtc.debian.org [5] (for Debian) and https://fedrtc.org [6]
> > (for Fedora)
> > and would be happy to help setup a similar service for gnome.org. The
> > RTC Quick Start Guide is also provided as a free resource to help more
> > communities do this.
>
> Is that something that benefits the user?

It provides a solid foundation for developers in communities like
Debian, Fedora and GNOME to test the different clients (Empathy,
Lumicall, Linphone, Pidgin, etc) against stable servers.


> > One other thing to keep in mind: when I suggested that Debian needs to
> > look at the default RTC (chat, voice and video) client, several people
> > responded "leave it to the GNOME package maintainers". But if GNOME is
> > not currently accepting responsibility for Empathy (as the message from
> > April suggests), then it means nobody is showing leadership at all in
> > this space, Debian is looking to GNOME and GNOME is looking to something
> > as yet undefined.
>
> I agree. Gnome 3 in the beginning had a strong integration with IM
> systems. However, over time this has been set aside, and developed an
> excellent IM application to the IRC protocol is most commonly used for
> communication between developers (among other things).
>
> A new application or empathy, refocused on the use of SIP/SIMPLE and
> XMPP/Jingle protocols, may be the best solution for GNOME RTC.
>
> Other protocols mentioned here require some more attention to their
> actual adoption. (as telegram or tox).
>
> Note: Do not forget another alternative being updated, as Ekiga.
> http://blog.ekiga.net/?p=201


There is also Jitsi, Ring (was SFLphone) and there are others too.