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Missing Skype? Choose freedom and switch to GNU Jami
Quoting: Missing Skype? Choose freedom and switch to GNU Jami —
We've been recommending GNU Jami along with other free communication tools for some time now. It, like many other actively developed free programs, has been steadily acquiring both new users and new features. According to a talk we had with a representative from GNU Jami's parent company, users have increased dramatically since Skype's shutdown. Considering how harmful network effects can be, this is a win for the free software movement.
Communication tools, like social networks, are only helpful so long as you can use them to actually communicate with others. Now more than ever, it's important to hold our most private conversations on free (as in freedom) software. At the same time, we need to be taking as many steps as possible to welcome users to free communication platforms, not only by making sure it runs on both free and nonfree operating systems, but by investing time and energy into accessibility and localization. By way of example, GNU Jami now allows for multi-byte Unicode usernames, an important feature for people speaking languages that don't utilize the Latin alphabet.
It's great to hear that free tools are growing, but it's even more refreshing to hear a developer say what they don't know about their userbase. In the case of Jami, data is only inferred instead of collected. Recording more detailed information about the network may be helpful to developers, but it also opens the door to later misuse, as happened for example, with Zoom's usage of the Facebook SDK. Whereas a proprietary software company's claims about encryption are often impossible to verify, free/libre software is not kept secret from the public. Free software is a prerequisite for true privacy.