Gaming Chat

Dissent – lightweight Discord app

Discord is a proprietary freeware voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) application designed for gaming communities. The software specializes in text and audio communication between users in a chat channel. The key word in the opening sentence is freeware.

But if you prefer open source software on your system there’s a viable alternative. It’s called Dissent (previously known as gtkcord4). This third-party Discord GTK-based client bills itself as a “smooth, native experience on Linux desktops”.

Installation

We evaluated Dissent using Manjaro, an Arch-based distro, as well as the ubiquitous Ubuntu.

With Manjaro, Pamac (Manjaro’s front-end installation tool) lets us install Dissent from a Flatpak, or with the Arch User Repository (AUR).

Installing Dissent

Flatpak is not our preferred method of installation, but it makes the process very simple, and it’s distro-agnostic.

Next page: Page 2 – In Operation and Summary

Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction and Installation
Page 2 – In Operation and Summary

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Please read our FAQ before making a comment.

6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Gio
Gio
1 month ago

I am not a proprietary-software supporter and so Discord is not my fancy.

However, I recognise that they have a right to decide their own Terms and Conditions.

If this software, Dissent, is in breach of those terms (and thus of the law), why are you advertising here?

We have so many valid opensource alternatives, and such a diverse ecosystem built on then. Starting from Matrix, for example. But also, albeit slightly different, Mastodon, Nostr etc etc.

Derek Igloo Dewhurst
Derek Igloo Dewhurst
1 month ago
Reply to  Gio

It’s never clear cut Gio. Breaching terms of service is not necessarily a breach of a law. For example, in many countries failing to abide by terms of service does not give a company a right to enforce unreasonable terms. 

True Man
True Man
1 month ago
Reply to  Gio

The fact there are alternatives to Discord makes not a jot of difference if you need to access their service e.g. if a gaming community has chosen to use Discord.