[Bug 16891] Telepathy should support OTR encryption

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16891





--- Comment #22 from Fionn Behrens <debian-io at fionn.de>  2009-08-03 09:31:50 PST ---

Hello all,

since I am the creator of this "bug", I feel obliged to calm the waves a bit
and add a plea for seriousness in this discussion.

What some developers might call "broken by design" is probably the backside of
OTR being a technology that just works with each and every IM protocol out
there, even the worst ones like MSN and Yahoo. I presume, providing such a
bandwidth of features just wont go without some kludgy solutions.
    In my daily life (and in the life of many others I would bet) practical
solutions are what counts and what is needed. OTR is a practical solution.
As a contract worker for several German companies I can tell you that in many
European IT departments OTR has become the de facto standard for on-the-fly
exchange of information bits like the casual end user password and similar
stuff of more-than-zero triviality.
To the best of my knowledge, all current versions of OTR provide no "false
security" when properly used and the fact that they might not be working very
elegant "under the hood" is actually the bit that is of "minor importance" to
me.

For me, the important point is that I totally depend on a cross-protocol
encryption solution for IM that "just works" in my daily life and so do many
other people. OTR is already here and has been for several years now. And
despite the fact that there might be more or less obvious and more or less
major disadvantages to OTR from the developers POV, *not* *one* single viable
alternative has come to my attention in the last years that is not forcing
users to use a specific IM protocol or even a specific OS platform.

Conclusion: Unless proven otherwise I'd like to state as a FACT that in the
field of IM privacy, OTR has become the de-facto standard. At least in Europe
it is very widely deployed and often expected to be available. And there are
just no alternatives available at all which work cross-protcol and
cross-platform.
  From my POV this means there is also (currently) no alternative available to
implementing OTR for every IM UA that wants to be taken seriously.

Thank you for reading.


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