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How to Kill a Decentralised Network (such as the Fediverse)
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this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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Technology
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I feel like the discussion gives google a little bit too much credit for the decline in xmpp popularity. It leaves out the critical context in in how the way people used chat apps changed as we enter the 2010s. Clients like aim, msn yim, google talk and such were replaced by whatsapp, imessenger, telegram, signal, facebook, groupme and etc.
The modern chat ecosystem that took over was one that is based on phone number and phone # contacts list rather than usernames and emails, and they evolved as a next gen style of text messaging. Instead of popping in and out of chats with individuals or groups you'd be always on always connected.
The way people chatted had just shifted. AIM was bigger and more mainstream than google talk was and it had XMPP compatibility, but that didnt really matter because people were chatting differently.
I tend to agree. At some point, open source has to survive attempted corporatization. In the case of multiple large corporations playing in an open-source pool, the GPL functions as a bit of a MAD standoff.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer was the origin of the term Embrace, Extend and Extend. MS Explorer is long dead, but Firefox persists. Even with Google starting shenanigans with Chrome, I don't think they can push it that far.
If an open standard is truly open, then I think you have to accept that corporations are going to come and play, and an open source project needs to be ready to deal with it.
My specific concern in this case though is that Meta already dominates social media so thoroughly, and it would be the only large player in ActivityPub. At the very least, there needs to be a robust defence of maintaining an open standard over adjusting to accommodate Meta. Granted, the Linux kernel has survived years of Microsoft being the #1 contributor to kernel development. There's even been rumblings about corporate representation on the Linux Foundation. All valid criticisms, but Linux keeps delivering.