Wish they’d say what was shit about it. Been using Element X as a backup client for years, now - while I’m annoyed at how barebones it is, I always felt it worked quite well for people just trying to get communications going in a basic fashion (E.g. To replace WhatsApp).
All of its install steps other than docker compose are still containers, or relate to hosting services, or specific managed platforms.
I’m a simple admin who likes to compile, copy to /usr/bin, prep my system user, populate a directory in /etc with all necessary configs, and write my own .service files.
If you like running single binaries in their own Docker instances, more power to you, but it rubs me the wrong way when people try to force that on me.
NB: I’m not above reading a Dockerfile and executing the steps manually, case in point: that’s how I build lemmy_server for my current instance… but the Immich steps are waay too involved, with too much of the software expecting some less than sane defaults for me. I went through it once, left a bad taste in my mouth, so I stopped using Immich.
Edit: Just to be clear, here’s the installation steps for Photofield. That’s what I like to see. “Download a binary, run, config lives at xxx” - delicious. I also don’t mind doing a ./configure and make if they want me to - just don’t bloat my system with an entire duplicate OS.
I run Debian on my VPSes. But, also, I’ve been through the path of doing what the PKGBUILD does, which is read the Dockerfike and manually execute the steps: I think it’s pretty problematic to have to do that every update cycle. Got Immich set up, looked at what I’d have to do every time I want to run an update, and "nope"d out.
With server side software like this, which will usually be running behind a reverse proxy and will connect to a postgres dB (or other services like Redis), I kind of don’t want to fight the software/make guesses to create these connections. I also take umbrage with the nginx proxying “example” configurations - just tell me what needs to be proxied to where and let me handle the rest; it’s a server, you don’t know my setup. Case in point, I don’t use nginx.
I like photofield because it’s a single binary (thanks, Go) listening on a port. I proxy what I need to it, and let it run.
Final note: I’m not knocking Immich, or the people who run it. I just think it’s lazy to distribute software with Docker because it encourages devs to write what I consider to be poorly designed software (E.g. Software with hard coded paths as strings, because everything is expected to be in the same place on every system - basically very rigid defaults). As a guy who knows his systems well, it annoys me I can’t manage them my way and need to run a nebulous docker container set up by some web developer. (some shade thrown there, my bad)
You don’t have to agree with me, I’m Don Quixote and this is one of my windmills.
I refuse to use Docker to install applications, so Immich was also a no-go for me. I settled on using Photofield, it’s been pretty great: https://github.com/SmilyOrg/photofield
Nice.
I also own a Flint 2. Been using OpenWRT for years, but when I got the flint I was so pleased with the stock interface I chose not to flash vanilla on it. 2 years later and it’s still doing great. Note that even though it’s stock, standard LuCi is still available - the “stock” part just seems to be a custom GL.iNet GUI you can choose not to use.
So helpful! Bet you’re fun at parties.
You can host a server which uses software not written by Element. Same for the client.
I don’t trust the Signal devs because I have no reason to. I don’t want to use anyone else’s servers unless I’m paying them or they’re paying me 😅
And I love swapping/trying new clients.
Matrix is literally an open standard, use a server and client written by people you trust, or write your own.
Signal is made by a private company and is completely closed source.
There’s a lot of hate for matrix, and I think it usually boils down to people using a client that doesn’t match their use case, or having tried the protocol while a certain “necessary” (for them) feature was still not accepted as core in the protocol. This leads to them writing off the whole stack as “bad” and prevents further discussion.
E.g. I think until we get Canonical DMs merged into the spec Matrix will always be a bit rough around the edges for new users.
Shame that people refuse to move past things like that, but - hey - maybe the next vibe coded discord replacement will be just what we need!