There are ongoing discussions right now on transitioning real-time chat primacy from IRC to Matrix in Fedora. For reference, here are some of the discussions:
@mattdm posted an update to the development mailing list indicating that we're going forward with implementing this transition imminently.
There are a couple of requirements for a Matrix client:
As I don't expect us to preload the app (though I think it'd be a good idea), we should try to make sure we have a good app that we can recommend for communicating with Fedora contributors.
Fedora KDE will be shipping KDE's NeoChat for this (fedora-kde/SIG#28), but we'd probably want something to recommend that fits with GNOME. To the best of my understanding, GNOME's only real Matrix client is Fractal, which we don't have in Fedora yet...
Discussed during open floor at today's meeting.
It'd be nice if we had fractal packaged for Fedora. In the meantime, it's available from Flathub.
My opinion: currently Fractal has some severe quality problems; e.g. private messages from Riot users get silently dropped because fractal doesn't support encrypted messages. For now, users would be better off using Element or a Qt app like NeoChat. But fractal is well-designed and, in the long term, it's surely what we would want to recommend.
Removing the F34 tag since Fractal is not going to be in good shape in time for F34.
My opinion is that we should package Fractal once it is in better shape. Depending on its eventual quality level, we may wish to feature it in GNOME Software or recommend it to Fedora contributors. But based on its current state, it is premature.
Metadata Update from @catanzaro: - Issue set to the milestone: None (was: Fedora 34)
As I don't expect us to preload the app (though I think it'd be a good idea)
FWIW I don't think we should preload a Matrix client. It's going to be considered bloat by anyone who doesn't use Matrix. We can recommend it without installing more things by default.
We should probably just close this issue.
Neal, OK?
I think someone in the WG will have to get Fractal packaged in Fedora eventually, but if you want to close it... 🤷♂️
Let's reduce the scope of this issue to packaging fractal eventually, once it's in better shape. Currently even basic functionality is broken, so it doesn't make sense to package in its current state.
There's a lot of work scheduled for this summer. Let's recheck its status in the fall, prior to Fedora 34. If it's not in good shape by then, we'll really need to close this as we should not keep issues open indefinitely.
You mean prior to Fedora 35? Fedora 34 is a spring release. :wink:
Yes indeed.
Metadata Update from @catanzaro: - Issue set to the milestone: Fedora 35
Metadata Update from @petersen: - Issue assigned to ngompa
Metadata Update from @ngompa: - Issue set to the milestone: Future Release (was: Fedora 35)
Neal, do you still think this needs to be tracked by the Working Group? Since there's no proposal to install Fractal by default, I'd say it's an app like any other, and I don't see any particular reason for it to be a priority for us?
I don't think this needs to be tracked by the Working Group. Closing.
Metadata Update from @catanzaro: - Issue close_status updated to: Won't fix - Issue status updated to: Closed (was: Open)
FYI: Fractal has landed in Rawhide now: https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=2233643
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