I have been hearing that matrix dendrite is no longer being worked on (at least unless people volunteer). I know that you cannot use element x which isn’t a big loss for me. I only plan to use it for family, friends, possibly friends and family of friends.
The big loss for me would be in the privacy category of things.
I have tried getting synapse to work but only managed to have it work with sqlite3 database. I don’t know how to get it to communicate properly with my postgres database for some reason. (I am using docker on ubuntu).
Well, encryption stays the same, whether you federate or not. I don’t think it makes any difference.
And Matrix is supposed to be used with end-to-end-encryption for the chat rooms. Meaning the server(s) can’t read the messages anyways. They just forward them and know who talks to whom, when, how often and the IP address of the device (the metatata). That’s what we usually worry about when talking about privacy. That kind of info will stay on your server if you don’t federate. But the server isn’t going to forward that information without a reason. Even if you activate federation. It only does that if there are people from other servers in the chat room. Your conversation with your friend on the same server, will be entirely unaffected from the federation setting.