Hello yet again

So I saw a topic recently asking about Signal, Molly, and Molly/FOSS. I’ve already learned that Molly is a… I don’t know if it’s REALLY a hardened or more secure or more privacy-respecting fork of Signal, but from what I’ve gathered, it’s definitely a fork of Signal that has made the attempt to be more hardened/secure/private than Signal.

But when I searched up FOSS, all I can find is “Free and Open Source Software”

But I thought Molly is already FOSS? Is there something else that FOSS stands for that doesn’t come up on a cursory ddg search?

And in a more general train of thought, is there a freakin’ glossary anywhere? Or is anyone willing to make at least a quick n dirty vocabulary lesson for me?

My last post had someone reply with some resources that have a big list of links to services and tools that are important for privacy and security but there’s just so many acronyms that like… describe categories of tools? Or types of problems?

I’m trying hard not to be the “waaah everyone must spoon feed me all of your accumulated knowledge so I don’t have to do any work myself” kind of person

And I’m aware of the dangers of… uh… I’ll call it “Lost in he Rabbit Hole” / “Analysis Paralysis” that happens when a newbie is first trying to wrap their head around the daunting task of remaining private and secure without also just becoming a technophobic hermit.

I know I’m not gonna get it perfect on the first try and I know that I really don’t need to.

But I am finding myself a bit overwhelmed when it seems every time I come on here, I find myself staring into yet another abyssal gap in my knowledge about all… this gestures vaguely.

Thanks for your patience and assistance.

  • de0u replied to this.

    Hi @GlytchMeister! I know that the topic is more broad in nature, but since you brought up a specific example, let me try to address that in particular.

    Molly (which as you know, is based on Signal) is open-source, yes. However, it does contain some Google libraries for notifications, as well as Google Maps integration for sharing location with contacts.

    Molly-FOSS strips those components out and replaces location sharing with OSM (OpenStreetMaps, which is a community-sourced mapping alternative), and for notifications, it only provides websockets as an option (which is the fallback on regular Signal/Molly for cases where Google Play is not detected on first launch). Websockets don't rely on a 3rd party service, but drain more battery.

    Currently, Molly provides these two separate options (Molly and Molly-FOSS), as well as a 3rd option, Molly-UnifiedPush which is essentially Molly-FOSS along with the ability of using UP (UnifiedPush) for notifications.

    I hope that helps!

    GlytchMeister But I thought Molly is already FOSS? Is there something else that FOSS stands for that doesn’t come up on a cursory ddg search?

    If I search for:

    molly foss

    I reach the main page:

    https://molly.im/

    ...which says:

    Molly, like Signal, uses Google’s proprietary code to support some features.

    Molly-FOSS is the community effort to make it 100% free and open-source.

    In particular, I believe Molly-FOSS does not use Google's push notification infrastructure.

    GlytchMeister And in a more general train of thought, is there a freakin’ glossary anywhere? Or is anyone willing to make at least a quick n dirty vocabulary lesson for me?

    These days a popular vehicle is explanatory videos. Naomi Brockwell has some, also "Side of Burritos". Something else that may be useful is reading every post on this forum for a month in a row.