jsJan 11

Just wanted to install an #XMPP client to create an account to test something. I moved away to #Matrix years ago because I had no hope anymore for #XMPP, but now that I wanted to create an account, I am just shocked at how dead it is: #Fedora still has Gajim 1.7.3, when the last release is 2.4.1. #pkgsrc is a bit but noch much better with 2.1.1. #Tkabber is even worse: pkgsrc has 0.11.1, when 1.1.2 is the latest release that was released in 2015(!). It seems distributions keep XMPP clients around, but don’t update them because nobody is using them anymore. I had not expected for XMPP to be that dead. That’s shocking.

I also think if distributions cannot be bothered to update a package in over 10 years, they should just remove it…

Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 11

@js it's not dead if you're actually using it.

#XMPP - like #IRC & #BBS - continues to exist and thrive where it matters.

Sadly there's no #deb package for #TorBrowser / #Tor by #TorProject which makes it really inconvenient to distribute beyond "shove it into $HOME/.apps/TorBrowser/ and pray it doesn't break!"

Show threadjs

@kkarhan @torproject This is not a problem of distributions neglecting Tor, but intentional: Tor does NOT want distributions to rebuild Tor browser, because that makes you more identifiable. Instead, they build the binaries reproducibly so you can verify they’re not up to something and you should use those instead. Fedora packages the torbrowser-launcher which downloads and verifies the Tor Browser binary. Debian should do the same.

Also, IRC clients seem to be quite up to date in distributions.

Jan 11 at 12:00pmWeb
Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 11

@js propably because #Distros tend to use #IRC for #community-based #support?

As for @torproject / #TorBrowser, I wished they'd offer their own repos then (like for #Android / @fdroidorg ) so one can orchestrate and deploy it across a fleet of systems (i.e. #InternetCafe) with existing tools (i.e. #Canonical #Landscape for @ubuntu / #UbuntuLTS)…

Show threadjsJan 11
@kkarhan @torproject @fdroidorg @ubuntu For “orchestrate and deploy”, there is torbrowser-launcher. It creates a menu entry that downloads Tor Browser, verifies its signature and then launches it. Just install that package.