Incredible to think about that we got it right the first time (with email) and still had to spend the last 20 years complaining about centralized social networks.

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[–] Michal@programming.dev 0 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The thing about email is that the software is proprietary. Each of these providers has their own implementation of the interface, features, and integration with their tools (Google drive, photos, etc).

As long as lemmy servers run lemmy software, this won't happen, or at least won't be an issue as you can move to another server and not have to change your usage habits.

However if some server owners decide to fork Lemmy and develop their proprietary server, overhaul the UI, add features and attract users, it will start to become a problem.

[–] nutomic@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

Lemmy's AGPL license doesnt allow forking the code into a proprietary server. All changes need to be open source as well, otherwise the operator can get sued. So a proprietary Lemmy software would have to be developed from scratch which would take a long time.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Email had standardized protocols and clients for 50 years, and still does.

[–] Michal@programming.dev 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Most people just use the web interface

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Maybe you do.

They didn't use to, anyway.

But also what you're describing is a solved problem and you'd think it'd be nice for you to learn that.