Derin

QR code login is technically out, you just need to be running your own homeserver (and MAS) to use it.

But, yeah, exciting to finally have that.

Matrix does have all of that, though? Except for voice.

I use matrix/element for socializing and Mumble for voice chat while gaming.

To respond to each comment:

• Element is a unified UI, available on PC/Web/Mobile.
• Starting and managing a community involves hitting the + button, creating a community, creating rooms in that community, then setting permissions and ACLs - pretty similar to discord, though with more control as you own the server.
• Embedded content is possible through the embed button.
• Video and voice work, but aren’t great for gaming (see below).

Element Call (aka the new MatrixRTC spec) is great for video calls, but leaves a lot to be desired for chatting while gaming.

From a chat standpoint, the two are near identical - yes - but Matrix lacks the “voice/video calls as persistent rooms” feature that Discord has. This was planned a while back, but has recently been pushed on the backburner^[1] as they work on Element Call.

Early on Matrix was sort of being built up as an IRC/Discord alternative, but recently they’ve pivoted more towards a WA/Telegram/Slack alternative as most of their financial support comes from European governments and companies looking for strong and secure internal communication solutions they can manage themselves.

So, TL;DR you probably won’t see the exact Discord like features you want land in the spec any time soon as they’re not being funded.

So that means, right now:

• No persistent voice/video rooms (but they are on the roadmap!)
• No push-to-talk or “game friendly” settings like voice auto-detection (also not really on the roadmap)

Having said all that, Matrix is brilliant and I highly encourage people to check it out. I use a Matrix <-> Signal bridge for most of my comms with my friends, and we voice chat on Mumble. Not ideal, but you get to avoid Discord and you get a very similar experience! Bonus points for Mumble as it’s super lightweight.

~[1] It’s not really on the backburner so much as it’s something that will have to be worked on after the new VOIP stack - Element Call - is integrated in the wider Matrix ecosystem. There is an experimental “video rooms” feature, but that really isn’t the same as a native, persistent voice-only room.~

Agreed.

Re: “(…) fuck however they want it spelt.”

As a Turkish person, I’m with you on this.

If the Turkish government wants you to refer to Turkey as Türkiye, then they shouldn’t be allowed to call the US “Amerika Birleşik Devletleri”: they should be required to pronounce it United States of America.

Let’s see how they like it then, lol. “Yunayıted Sıtets af Amerika”, hah.

Those all sound shitty - granted, I’m pretty sure I don’t have Copilot on my system, but maybe it didn’t ask me during the upgrade? Either way - my original point still stands: all of these seem just as bad as Win10 (to me, a person who barely used either).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad people are joining us on the Linux bandwagon, it just seems like the reasons for making the switch are almost arbitrary. Another way of putting it would be: "This is what finally pushed you over? ‘Copilot’?"

Anyway, regardless, I’m happy that people are making better choices - regardless of the reasons for doing so!

Been a Linux user for ages, I do have Windows 11 installed on another partition but I rarely - if ever - boot into it.

I mention the above spiel because I don’t understand what additional points people have against windows 11? It seems very similar to windows 10 for me - what’re the reasons for people hating it?

Genuinely not trying to be obtuse, here - I’m just wondering what the primary pain points are of win 11?

Is it the requirement for using a Microsoft account to log in vs. a normal local account? Or the one drive stuff? (upon install it did move most of my personal folders into a weird OneDrive directory, and I had to use the registry to wipe out OneDrive and move them back. Very annoying.)