Welp, I didn't expect this post to blow up like that. Maybe I should add some context.
I think this is a messy PR move gone awry. It's not a secret that Synapse doesn't scale well. The interesting part lies in the bigger picture.
First of all: There's nothing *inherently* wrong with a company building a closed source product to interface with open software/standards.
People have opinions on whether that's beneficial for the ecosystem or not. It's not the can of worms I want to open, but I can't avoid it entirely.
Some history. In the end of 2023 Element pulled a very interesting move where they forked Synapse and relicensed the code from Apache 2.0 to AGPLv3 and started requiring a CLA for contributions. See: https://matrix.org/blog/2023/11/06/future-of-synapse-dendrite/
Since Element staff is responsible for most of the maintenance work, the Matrix Foundation had no chance but to discontinue their Apache licensed version.
So, essentially project ownership of Synapse (forcefully) changed from the Matrix Foundation to the Element company.
A bit later Element announced a proprietary version of Synapse where they claimed to have fixed some of the most glaring architectural issues.
Suddenly they have a big commercial incentive to keep Synapse slow. And in this blog post they say that, loud and clear.
fiona :loading: /
npub1j6…wsv3y
2025-01-17 21:44:49
in reply to nevent1q…w7a9
Author Public Key
npub1j6f2zyw9yl6utlwxymsrkejcycjm49rd9q30dn3275y9es9dgthqxwsv3yPublished at
2025-01-17 21:44:49Event JSON
{
"id": "c1f3f69db77e55a6e0b6d7309c0aee4b78d09abaa30d451c1420dfd613affdd5",
"pubkey": "9692a111c527f5c5fdc626e03b66582625ba946d2822f6ce2af5085cc0ad42ee",
"created_at": 1737150289,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"content-warning",
"matrix meta"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://mystical.garden/@fionafokus/113845881341852479",
"web"
],
[
"e",
"045f881c2b1dc2dc449cfcd252864b34f7a1be0a623369f869deb1a532187340",
"",
"root",
"9692a111c527f5c5fdc626e03b66582625ba946d2822f6ce2af5085cc0ad42ee"
],
[
"p",
"9692a111c527f5c5fdc626e03b66582625ba946d2822f6ce2af5085cc0ad42ee"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://mystical.garden/users/fionafokus/statuses/113845881341852479",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://mystical.garden/users/fionafokus/statuses/113845881341852479",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"-"
]
],
"content": "Welp, I didn't expect this post to blow up like that. Maybe I should add some context.\n\nI think this is a messy PR move gone awry. It's not a secret that Synapse doesn't scale well. The interesting part lies in the bigger picture.\n\nFirst of all: There's nothing *inherently* wrong with a company building a closed source product to interface with open software/standards.\nPeople have opinions on whether that's beneficial for the ecosystem or not. It's not the can of worms I want to open, but I can't avoid it entirely.\n\nSome history. In the end of 2023 Element pulled a very interesting move where they forked Synapse and relicensed the code from Apache 2.0 to AGPLv3 and started requiring a CLA for contributions. See: https://matrix.org/blog/2023/11/06/future-of-synapse-dendrite/\nSince Element staff is responsible for most of the maintenance work, the Matrix Foundation had no chance but to discontinue their Apache licensed version.\nSo, essentially project ownership of Synapse (forcefully) changed from the Matrix Foundation to the Element company.\n\nA bit later Element announced a proprietary version of Synapse where they claimed to have fixed some of the most glaring architectural issues.\n\nSuddenly they have a big commercial incentive to keep Synapse slow. And in this blog post they say that, loud and clear.",
"sig": "a98f1a3989e22840725ec7b0aa207000b4000e1867a520be3c579978aa826ec6dd40e53618511aa0b95342cf6410454cdb6facf4eaa6e029cfff7c42bb503deb"
}