For me its honestly a ton of my work software (digital forensics), shit is too niche to be replaced by good FOSS options. Cellebrite, Magnet Axiom, etc. Autopsy is great and free and has a linux version but it simply cannot get the same level of data without a pretty nutty level of custom code.
And the biggest side effect of this is FUCKING WINDOWS. God I would replace this nightmare OS in a heartbeat if the aforementioned work software would make linux compatible versions. We have legitimately wasted 10k hours dealing with windows bullshit that would not be a problem in linux. Though im sure linux would take a different 10k for its own problems.
What about you guys? Doesn’t have to be work related, thats just the thorn in my side right now.
You can use a FOSS app at your end to chat with WhatsApp users, if this isn’t something you’re already aware of. Element.io plus a bridge. Beeper.com is a turnkey platform that sorts it all out for you.
It doesn’t help replace WhatsApp as a platform, but perhaps it would suit you?
I have been looking at this possibility, but running a bridge means that I will need to self host a service, which adds one more point of failure, while not really removing whatsapp from my life, so I’m not convinced it’s a good alternative.
That’s what beeper.com does. It’s also open source, but they handle running it for you.
But absolutely I agree that it doesn’t remove WhatsApp from your life, and that’s a pain point for me also when I’m working with services in Asia, who like Brasil predominantly work from WhatsApp.
If you don’t like Beeper, you could try these guys who host a managed solution (means you don’t have to deal with any issues), and let’s you offer the service to others:
https://etke.cc/
In that case, won’t the server have access to my credentials?
No it won’t have your credentials, but you will authorise the bridge as a device, like you would with the web app.
Ah, I see. But in that case, won’t the server have access to my messages in plain text?
Yes and no. No, in that the bridge code is published, and it takes no action other than re-encrypting your message with the destination auth. But you have to trust that server. If you don’t trust the server, then you can run your own. Running your own Matrix server isn’t all that hard; I’ve done it before and there’s an Ansible playbook which does all the heavy lifting for you. But these days I prefer someone to run it for me.
How often do bridges to proprietary services break though?
I used to run bitlbee to use many chats in my irc ckient like 10-15years ago, and I remember things like google chat plugin breaking at least every month.
I last ran it myself a couple of years ago, and it was fine. These days I’m using Beeper, and I haven’t had any dropouts as an end user. If there are issues, they’re dealing with it not me.