It seems like the FOSS community is continuing to grow, and FOSS apps keep getting better (Immich reallh blew my mind recently), which is a big win 😎 but there are still many apps I use that I would kill for an open source alternative. I am curious what you guys think? Are there any apps you'd love alternatives for?

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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 42 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Matrix is also extremely complicated to sign up for. I tried getting some tech savvy friends to sign up for Matrix the other day. Even for someone tech-savvy it is waaaaaaaay too complicated. Many of the clients don't even have a sign up option, you need to sign up elsewhere first.

[–] ClearCutCoconut@lemmy.world 23 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Yeah...for many of these programs the onboarding is so daunting, even for those who are tech savvy. Laymen don't stand a chance with something that is that complicated. It doesn't often seem to be a technical issue either, more-so a user experience or design problem

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 20 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It doesn’t often seem to be a technical issue either, more-so a user experience or design problem

Oh 100%. The problem is that there's a lack of UX designers and such in the Open Source community. There's technical people building stuff but they often don't know how to make a good user experience (or in some cases they don't care to).

[–] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 5 months ago (2 children)

IDK why this always gets downvoted. UI/UX some of the biggest issues with FOSS software, and is a massive barrier to entry to someone who isn't a massive computer nerd willing to put up with that shit.

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 6 points 5 months ago

I guess they take any criticism of open source as if you are against the whole movement. I don't understand either.

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 months ago

honestly i don't even think it's a FOSS problem, this is a problem with every UI ever made in the last three years essentially.

Unless it's literally making money off of you having an account, there is no incentive to design a good UI from the ground up. The solution here ironically, is simply don't skill issue, or document it very well.

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago

personally when it comes to the onboarding im more on the side of "self host your own onboarding, for friends and family and shit, and then federate out from there if needed."

Theoretically doing a clean onboarding shouldn't be very difficult. More involved i suppose, but if you don't have the time to figure out how a federated instance works, (or to properly document it) you shouldn't be on the internet, you have more pressing matters to attend to.

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 9 points 5 months ago

There are instances that are not very hard to sign up for. The main issue with Matrix is instability and performance, especially when communicating with users/groups on different instances. It's really not a great experience. And the inability to properly delete messages can be a big deal too

[–] chebra@mstdn.io 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

@SorteKanin I'd like to see that. I have already onboarded about 35 students and my whole family to matrix, nobody had any problems with signup. Bigger problem is later if they get the infamous "Unable to decrypt message" error.

[–] astro_ray@lemdro.id 1 points 5 months ago

Yeah. I still don't understand all the encryption stuff. I lost all my encrypted texts even after I used my recovery pass phrase on a new session.

[–] halm@leminal.space 6 points 5 months ago

Many of the clients don’t even have a sign up option, you need to sign up elsewhere first.

It's inconvenient, sure, but think of it as an assurance that you're not locked in with one app.

That said, I completely agree that Matrix and Element need to work on UX, particularly making it easy for new users to adopt it as well as verification/device switching.

[–] metacolon@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 months ago

Can't relate. It's not harder to get your hands on a matrix account in comparison to a mail account. And for those that want it even easier, just download Element and you are guided through the default registration at matrix.org

[–] FiniteBanjo 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You don't need to create an instance to use Matrix, you can just use a user account with Element or something instead.

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 1 points 5 months ago

I know. But even that is actually rather complicated. Signing up for Lemmy is comparatively simple.