UBports (Ubuntu touch) recently announced that Anbox will soon run on their OS. I.e. Android apps will run on the new Ubuntu touch.
It would be great if Purism would also consider Anbox.
I know… first the basics of Librem 5 have to be developed, but I just wanted to share my excitement that Anbox seems to make progress with their project and I hope that some day Anbox would run on a Librem 5.
3 Likes
UBports team is doing a fantastic job, I admit that I though that they will give up a few weeks after the Canonical announcement. Actually they are improving Ubuntu better than Canonical.
I have asked to make Silence compatible with the Librem 5 because we still use SMS/MMS a lot and Riot seems not ready yet for that, maybe this will be possible with Anbox.
2 Likes
MMS are incredibly expensive here in Germany. I can’t see why one wants to use that. Since you would anyways have to install an App with Silince, why not directly go with a proper IM App like Conversations (XMPP)? I use it since one year and it’s reliable, secure and a full replacement for SMS/MMS. You even have much more features over with SMS and MMS (e.g. Group-chat, PC-Chat via Gajim and much more).
…but noone uses XMPP anymore 
I have 0 Persons in my list
1 Like
I’ve convinced 2 family members and 4 friends to install Conversations. It can be used in parallel to What’s app and other IM’s. Instead of convincing your friends to install SIlience, convince them to install Conversations. Its much better. But anyways, this thread should be about Anbox, not aber a chat client…
2 Likes
SMS/MMS are free in some countries. As there are multiple platforms (iOS/Android) and several IM’s (Skype, Whatsapp, Messenger, Viber, etc.), people simply use SMS/MMS to be sure somebody can receive the message, because of compatibility.
This is why Silence is important : it can encrypt SMS/MMS between 2 people (or a group) having this app. Just install it, and use it a the main messaging app. It will encrypt without set it up.
I have tried Conversation, and I was stuck in the set-up (to make a server, or to use XMPP server/account for free 1 year, then to pay for it). Too much complicated for the man in the street.
Anyway, I am still interested about an easy XMPP tutorial. I just want to be sure that it can encrypt SMS/MMS and easy to set-up.
XMPP ist also multi-platform (iOS, Android, Linux , Windows). Because of that, there is no compatibility issue because everybody that is communicating would simply install Conversations/Chat secure (iOS) or Gajim (Win/Linux) instead of Silence. You can also choose NOT to specifically verify the encryption keys of your buddies and chat right away, but still encrypted. Creating a XMPP account is as simple as creating an e-mail account and that, everbody can do (see the ReadMe). Yes, you can search for the best server, but you can also take just any one server that is free of charge (for the beginning). SMS/MMS you then don’t need anymore for people who also use XMPP. That is old technology.
1 Like
Technically if you install own xmpp server to have end-to-end encryption would suffice just to enable TLS. This way all C2S connections are encrypted. Only federated communication remains uncertain. So in use-case above (convince close circle of friend to use certain xmpp server) TLS on own server does that.
Regarding blind trust - yes, encryption is still there, however without key verification you can never be sure your encryption domain is terminated at intended recipient rather than some rogue MitM.
I personally am intending to port at least sailfish/nemo messaging stack (telepathy) to librem if they end up with locked to matrix/riot native dialer. and use its xmpp (gabble) for messaging.