What is the general consensus on Zello?
What is the general consensus on Zello?
I understand that Zello is not FOSS, but their website claims everything is end-to-end-encrypted.
So, in short, should/can it be trusted? If not, are there any good FOSS alternatives that provide similar Walkie-Talkie like functionality?
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The reason FOSS will always be better is because claims like that can actually be validated and audited. Any company can claim their stuff is E2E encrypted, but you'll never know if that's true for closed source software. Even if they do actually do E2E encryption, you'll likely not know if they're doing it properly and with strong encryption algorithms.
I wasn't asking if FOSS can be trusted, I was asking if Zello can be trusted. The general consensus judging by the comments so far is an astounding no, by nobody has really provided any good alternatives with similar functionality.
I wasn't talking about whether or not to trust FOSS, I was talking about Zello (since it's closed source, which I originally mentioned). There might not be a FOSS alternative, I don't know since I have never needed a walkie talkie app. That's why I didn't mention one and only answered the first part of your question. You're right that it probably can't be fully trusted (because it's closed source).
Oh, apologies for the misunderstanding.
It can not be validated and audited. You may ask 10 times and the answer will be exactly same.
Their claims cannot be verified. So no, you can’t “trust” them on anything more than their claims. Which can’t be validated. So…
If you want an open source walkie talkie functionality, you can use signal, or even simple x, and send voice messages. Boom walkie-talkie
There are products built on top of Mumble, which is a voice conferencing software, which is open source.
https://github.com/Theofilos-Chamalis/EVO-PTT
The client is open, but they use a proprietary server, which is just mumble
If you want to host your own Mumble server, you can use a more open client that's not tied to a commercial server... Like https://mumla-app.gitlab.io/
....
Being hostile towards people giving you good advice, is not a great way to get good advice in the future. The reason people are telling you about the benefits of open source software, it's impossible to vet or prove any privacy claims with closed source software. They could be lying, people lie all the time.
Thank you for the suggestions, I will be sure to check them out.
Also, my intention was not to be hostile. I made that comment out of the facts the other comments that were made at that time presented, in which were saying the pros of FOSS, and Zello should not be trusted because of it's closed-source nature. Somewhere in there my tone must have gotten misinterpreted.
Again, I apologize to anyone who read my comments as an act of hostility, as that was not my intention.