The Fediverse deserves a dumb graphical client
21 points by Aks
21 points by Aks
I really wish people would try to make clients for the ActivityPub client to server protocol, not just for Mastodon. :(
If anyone is interested in that, I can help.
Prior art, c. 2018: https://brutaldon.org/about
I was going to say that this reminded me of brutaldon.
I wrote brutaldon originally, but haven't done much maintenance for quite a while, while Mastodon has churned underneath it, and various other things implement the Mastodon client protocol but not quite, so compatibility expectations have expanded while my motivation to work on it has decreased.
Sure but smolFedi can log me into my Akkoma instance when Brutaldon still can't.
Also Brutaldon is Python (and therefore should be yeeted into the sun) and, at least the last time I tried to install it, an absolute horror show to make work.
Are there screenshots? I probably missed them.
My pick for this is mastodon.el for Emacs. It's full featured and since it's Emacs it has excellent keyboard operability and customization. Find it in MELPA or on Codeberg.
I've been using this a little. Great project since brutaldon development has stopped (I think...) and it works in Dillo.
Yeah, brutaldon development is theoretically in maintenance mode, but in practice I don't have much motivation to do anything with it.
So if I read the linked article correctly, it's a server interposed between the Fediverse and the user's HTML client ("browser") rather than a local client written in Python, Go or whatever.
I'm sure the author's intent is benign, but it could easily be interpreted as an attempt to muscle-in and potentially commercialise.
could easily be interpreted as an attempt to muscle-in and potentially commercialise.
Easily? I have a hard time picturing a cunning plan here, how would one do that? It's an alternative client to a protocol/server, just like your email client. There's a lot of things like this already, e.g. Elk, Phanpy or Brutaldon.
Could someone explain what is so non lightweight about mastodon? Is this programs main feature no JavaScript? Is this mainly for users with poor internet?
On my phone (just tested), it takes ~10s to first load a Mastodon profile page and ~8s to open a toot. After it finally loads, there is constant jank / stutters while scrolling.
At least some Mastodon instances open a toot in a new tab when I go to view it, meaning it takes another ~8s for this (imo) basic UI interaction. Also, somewhere between 2 and 6 tabs the browser runs out of memory, purges the page I was on, and reloads it again, losing my place.
Note that this is as someone who doesn't have a fediverse account, but does at times check out posts by people who do.
First of all it says it's compatible with other backends than just Mastodon, and for GoToSocial you need a client anyway. Most people I know use pinafore (or a fork, but they heavily use JS) or one of the mobile clients.
I've had tabs with Mastodon use up a lot of RAM (and autorefresh) so I can see how it would be handy on some low-powered devices like old laptops.
Oh, and if you Mastodon instance is blocked then your personal web space is probably not blocked, so this should work as well.
I've had tabs with Mastodon use up a lot of RAM (and autorefresh)
Akkoma's default frontend frequently gets restarted by Safari for that reason. My phanpy tab will also get restarted (but much less often.)