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Comment by pyeri | Hacker News Reader

Let us simplify our IT layers and stacks before it is too late.

It's time to introspect and ask those critical questions: Is it really necessary to install each one of these apps, every single one of these libraries and frameworks? How can I remove dependencies from these libs and do a little core work myself? And tell the same thing to your partners, colleagues, coworkers, etc. If you find 4-5 apps doing basically the same thing (like communication or productivity tool), see if you can consolidate them into one.

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> If you find 4-5 apps doing basically the same thing (like communication or productivity tool), see if you can consolidate them into one.

If I could get all of my friends to switch to one communication app, that would be great, but that's only going to happen if they can get their friends to switch, and so on. Unfortunately, doing so requires them to install additional apps for communication, and no one can get everyone they talk to to switch, so they're just going to have more people on one app than another and in the end the problem gets worse.

Matrix bridges solve a lot of this problem, though... aren't really reducing complexity at all ends of the system. It does radically reduce end user app complexity, though.

I've been hosting a Matrix homeserver for... oh, 4-5 years, now, and I have bridges installed for my use and a few other people who use it that bridge Signal, Google Chat, Facebook Messenger, and maybe one or two other services into Matrix - so I almost never have to bother with the other clients, I just use a Matrix client everywhere. There are the occasional quirks you have to deal with, most of which are solved by upgrading your bridge (and the new bridges are a lot easier to deal with than the older ones).

As people decide to go Matrix-native, I can talk to them that way as well.

That said, as far as non-Matrix options go, Signal seems to be a fairly common one and easy enough to get people to switch to.

Just heard of Matrix and it seems super interesting; how clunky are the bridges in practice? Is the UX/setup painless or does it have some issues?

I mean, how's your Linux command line these days?

https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/go/setup.html?bridge=signal is the setup for the Signal bridge, and you'll also need to look at the initial config setup. Once you have a working Matrix homeserver, it's mostly "Create a new database table, point the bridge at it, add the proper incantations to your homeserver config so it knows the bridge is permitted, and start things up."

I don't find it bad in the slightest, but I'm also a legacy Linux sysadmin sort.

There are also Docker methods of doing it, if you prefer that: https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/general/docker-setup.html?bridge...

If you're a GUI-only sort, it will be painful. If you're competent with older styles of Linux sysadmin, it's fairly straightforward, though getting Matrix federation working reliably can be a slight pain. Just make sure your certs update...

Alright that doesn’t look too bad at all. I’m not at the level of sysadmin, but I do daily drive Debian and generally know my way around a terminal. I’ll give it a shot!

In my circles Signals died when they dropped being the SMS app.

I wish they had gone the other way, and been a bridging app like Pidgin with plugins.

> If you find 4-5 apps doing basically the same thing (like communication or productivity tool), see if you can consolidate them into one.

I thought this was called a monoculture and was a bad thing when e.g. Crowdstrike was the one app chosen?

Yeah and that one app will be SimpleX or I may as well be dead to everyone, if I went down that road.

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