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Comment by arcadeparade | Hacker News Reader

its an os, its social media without the middleman, its an identity, its many things. Sadly HN always seems to hate it whenever it get posted here.

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Maybe a better question is, "what does Urbit do? Like, specifically - and using either standard technical jargon, comparison to other products on the market.

Because at this point it just sounds like a techno-cult.

My best answer to this question is that it's an overly complex IRC with additional features and misleading marketing designed to swindle investors.

In fact, it's so obscure and bloated that the average IRC user wouldn't be able to understand it.

The average user has no hope.

I mean, just look at them trying to explain Urbit on Twitter. Meaningless abstract buzzwords and it still doesn't explain anything.

https://twitter.com/urbit/status/1184984759123922945

https://twitter.com/urbit/status/1255284955850125312

https://twitter.com/urbit/status/1253709910694432768

It reads like a cult.

Right now you can download urbit and message other people with an urbit planet if you know their id, and its peer to peer. you own the planet forever and you cannot be censored or have your data be sold to advertisers on social media platforms.

What is the difference compared to signal or other E2E encrypted SMS approaches?

That might have more to do with Urbit's founder rather than the technical merits of the project.

Could you explain Urbit to your mother within a minute?

Is there any person you could explain it to in a minute?

“An operating system in a box that connects with others to provide (mostly in the future) the kind of networked services and apps you enjoy now, but with your data stored locally instead of on corporate servers”

Easier than explaining bitcoin, honestly. No warrants made to mom or others on usability or service availability

My mother fell asleep because I read that, it was that boring to non techies.

Hypothetical response: "An operating system? Is it better than Windows? What games does it have?"

I'm not convinced that's an appropriate term to use here, even as part of a simplified explanation.

"Have you ever had a software update break your computer or an app you used, or have you ever had a website you love disappear from the internet? Imagine if that could never happen again."

That’s cool, I guess. I just don’t want all those things bundled up.

Good job making it sound like a cult.

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