Signal is way worse because it requires you to have the cellphone always on.

With Telegram you need a phone number to sign-in and then you can forget about it, and use it just on desktop/laptop. You can set a password as a 2 factor authentication (1st: sms or code to another telegram client 2nd: password).

> Signal is way worse because it requires you to have the cellphone always on.

Bullcrap. Signal works fine on data alone. I have Tasker automatically turn on airplane mode when I'm on WiFi and it's never caused me to miss a Signal message.

No it doesn't. you only need the phone for the initial link.

so, yeah, every time you open your desktop you need a cellphone

Maybe you're thinking of WhatsApp, which requires the phone to be around. Signal Desktop doesn't need the phone to be around once you've finished linking the desktop to your account (which is one time). From the second time onwards, you could as well leave your phone turned off and/or in a different country and Signal Desktop would still work fine.

No. To set up Signal Desktop on a computer, you need a cellphone once.