It looks like Signal isn't as open source as you thought it was anymore

Re:It looks like Signal isn't as open source as you thought ... by rOOb85 on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @05:51PM (#26717826)

Both the server code and client code are open source. You're absolutely free to take them, modifly them, and do whatever you want with them. You're free to make your own fork and create your own chat service.

However, signal won't (and had not obligation to) provide your forks infrastructure. It costs money and time to maintain servers and they don't want 3rd party projects leeching their resources.

Again, your free to take their open source code and modify it and stand up your own infrastructure. If you do, you'll end up with your own chat service.

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Re:It looks like Signal isn't as open source as you thought ... by saurik on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @06:19PM (#26718071)

I feel like you missed the point of this discussion: the server code in fact hasn't been open source for the past year, and so one couldn't make a fork of it.

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Re:It looks like Signal isn't as open source as you thought ... by cmckn on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @07:44PM (#26718771)

I wouldn't say that, they just didn't provide open access to their feature branches before they were merged (or "production-ready", however you want to put it).

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Re:It looks like Signal isn't as open source as you thought ... by tablespoon on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @09:46PM (#26719656)

> I feel like you missed the point of this discussion: the server code in fact hasn't been open source for the past year, and so one couldn't make a fork of it.

That seems to be overstating things. The server source in fact was always available, but there's nothing about open source that says a developer has to push their changes out on a particular schedule.

Also, it's supposed to be E2E encrypted, so I think the source that's really important is the client.

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