I’m not going to argue that xmpp shouldn’t be the defacto Foss social/chat network based on merit, it definitely has merit. But in reality, it had its shot and it did not take off. Now, in 2023, Matrix is our best shot at an open, Foss, decentralized chat protocol taking off.
Any arguments that xmpp evangelists will try to come back at this statement with do not matter. I’m sorry, it is just a fact, the clock isn’t turning back. Matrix may not be perfect for everybody, but it’s pretty damn great, and it has the momentum right now. Let’s please not screw this up with the typical fragmentation the open source community regularly has.