Konv
Version: 0.1 Web: http://bit.ly/2rt0NNj
Every few years people change their preferred way of instant messaging, commonly due to waves of security-related breaches that gain prominence from media coverage. Privacy is perhaps the most important concern of people in general, and for Linux users it plays even the bigger role. The Tox network came to life in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks regarding NSA spying activity some years ago. Even if you’re not fond of rumours or conspiracy, there’s nothing bad in using the better-secured channels of communication in everyday life. Step forward Konv. Essentially, it does pretty much the same job as qTox that we looked at in LXF211 and 217, but it uses the GTK3 interface instead of Qt5. So, Konv is here to replace Skype, WhatsApp and Telegram with a more transparent approach that doesn’t require a proprietary web server to link you with your buddies. Having secure conversations over the insecure open internet isn’t a growing concern once you go with Konv, because you’ll benefit from direct peer-to-peer connection.
The Konv interface is neat and readable, although it only comes in English and French. In return, Konv greets you with a funny profile populated with celebrities and fictional characters every time you use the application without loading your profile.
Konv is fine for everyday use when finding people, texting, making audio and video calls, transferring files and so on. It integrates well with desktops such as Gnome, Unity and Pantheon, and looks like a native application. The Preferences dialog features plenty of security settings, such as making use of the list of custom bootstrap nodes that can help prevent tracking. It’ll take time to get used to the Toxstyle messaging that doesn’t have central authentication server (so, for example, you need to keep your profile with you to get online on a different PC), but we believe that the efforts are justified by the benefits.
“Konv greets you with a funny profile populated with celebrities and fictional characters…”