• poVoq@slrpnk.net
    281·
    20 hours ago

    Matrix is owned by a foundation only on paper. In reality it is all owned and driven by Element, which was very much VC funded in the past but seems to have reached the end of the VC re-financing cycle by now (hence increased enshittification speed).

    • pot_belly_mole@slrpnk.net
      4·
      2 hours ago

      The tweet that seemed to be bootlicking Trump was worrying and troubling in my opinion as well. However, reading this deeper analysis alleviated at least some of my fears https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e

      Also the foundation model decisively limits the influence of the founder. There seems to be no other European email service that’s quite on par with Proton. Therefore I still think they are the top alternative.

    • ex_06@slrpnk.netOPM
      1116·
      22 hours ago

      Fascism is when selling his own business to a foundation to ensure that it is more immune to capitalism?

      Nah, I’d say no. He said shit but happens to everyone.

      Here is the full board btw https://proton.me/foundation

        • ex_06@slrpnk.netOPM
          611·
          20 hours ago

          The situation in the US makes pretty clear what fascism is and who Trump fans are

          2 tweets in which he said that the republicans could help small tech are definitely not enough to be called either (fascist or Trump fan) imho

          But it’s not a hill I’d die on. Still a foundation, still not easily sold to a random rich guy, still other members on the board and so on. Opinions are opinions but facts are here to stay and I can trust that organization still much more than others even if one person of the board went crazy. Organizations over single people ftw

          • Optional@lemmy.world
            193·
            18 hours ago

            Hard disagree. His tweets were slobbering. Not going to get into it here, it’s just the case. Proton is dead. Fucker can have his MAGAt user base.

            • ex_06@slrpnk.netOPM
              21·
              16 hours ago

              We can agree to disagree for the tweets but I’m not sure that I agree on the part about throwing a good organization built on solid principles because of one person tbh. Yes he is not a random employee but on the foundation board there are also people like Tim Berners Lee…

  • amzd@lemmy.world
    62·
    19 hours ago

    50% of signals income (aka donations) go directly to their hosting partners Google and Amazon and the second they don’t have enough donations to pay the bills the messenger will seize working

    • ex_06@slrpnk.netOPM
      182·
      19 hours ago

      Ye and if they owned servers they would need to pay electricity and internet connections to some capitalistic operators

      If they had even solar panels they’d still buy them from capitalistic companies

      If they even owned solar panel production they’d still buy materials from capitalistic mines

      If they’d also buy the mines they’d now need some form of army to defend them or they’d need to pay some capitalistic mercenaries company

      You understand that we have to start somewhere, right?

      the second they don’t have enough donations to pay the bills the messenger will seize working

      It’s a bit like worrying about donations to Wikipedia or the internet archive honestly. They are so big that probably a lot of people would stop them from failing.

  • atro_city@fedia.io
    71·
    23 hours ago

    Signal isn’t VC funded? I thought the WhatsApp dude gave it 50 million or something?

    • ex_06@slrpnk.netOPM
      141·
      22 hours ago

      https://signal.org/blog/signal-foundation/

      I never read “VC funded” as someone who donated money and also was a VC. To me it’s always Venture capitalists investments asking for power and margin returns. Hence also it makes the product much more prone to enshittify to keep the numbers go up

      Signal is none of this but yes, got a headstart by someone who happens to be also a VC a rich person?

      Edit: I edit because I cannot find anything that links Acton to vc activities actually 🤔

      • atro_city@fedia.io
        7·
        22 hours ago

        Thanks. That helps my understanding too. I just had a vague memory about the 50 million number.

  • optissima@lemmy.ml
    59·
    24 hours ago

    simpleX and a more anti-compliance mail company like Tuta mail are even better options! Don’t get comfortable halfway down the path!

    • pot_belly_mole@slrpnk.net
      1·
      2 hours ago

      I’d love to like Tuta but man was using their service a constant pain. The search is incredibly slow for any messages not downloaded and keyword matching is somehow weird, the spam filter fails terribly (my spam folder was always full of legitimate messages), assigning rules is clumsy, and you can’t even bulk export mail to switch services:((

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
      372·
      23 hours ago

      Dude just let someone be proud of switching away from invasive spyware for fuck’s sake. Also, SimpleX isn’t inherently better than Signal and suffers way worse from the network effect. Signal has consistently shown through subpoenas that it has functionally nothing on you. They aren’t “halfway down the path”; Signal is fantastic.

      • optissima@lemmy.ml
        1·
        18 hours ago

        I appreciate your article, and get what youre trying to say, but encouraging people in a direction they are already headed down is different than all or nothing.

    • ex_06@slrpnk.netOPM
      131·
      23 hours ago

      Simplex is vc funded and doesn’t have a business model so nobody knows if it will ever be sustainable, I won’t pass any of my chats to it until they figure out their stuff.

      Tuta too is for profit even if not vc funded. So the risk of easily getting sold is always there and tbh I don’t like giving money to for profit vertical companies unless necessary.

      Btw no company is anti compliance. They fight in court but in the end they will comply, they have to…