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Your Computer Isn't Yours

sneak.berlin

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Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#161

Post by brnt »

Aeolun wrote: post #150
rsanheim wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have. Many times. Every time I end up debugging suspend/resume, graphic drivers, multiple monitor, etc. I spend enough time changing config files for my job, I’m not spending my own time doing it just to get basic functionality working for workstations.

I think it’s fairly simple to avoid this by buying hardware that is proven to be effective with the OS. E.g. buy a machine with *buntu preinstalled. Same as with mac really.

Even so, I install Ubuntu on a wide range of machines, laptops included, and I can't recall having any hardware related issues since, oh, 2005 or so?

Parent must be very unlucky, or in fact not realise it is their tweaking and tuning that causes issues.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#162

Post by unnouinceput »

alphabettsy wrote: post #88
unnouinceput wrote: post #82

Quote: "These machines are the first general purpose computers ever where you have to make an exclusive choice: you can have a fast and efficient machine, or you can have a private one." I call BS on Apple having the fastest machine, even at current moment, not to mention in the future. I can make a gaming rig with latest Ryzen CPU that will run whatever I want and be both faster and cheaper than Apple's expensive cr…

How about efficient? A Mac Mini is extremely efficient.

I am most efficient at my desktop. The sheer screen estate allows me to organize my work better than on any laptop, Apple or not.

I have 2 laptops, bought them to my kids for this times when online school is a must. I tried to do some work, didn't like the small screen.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#163

Post by stkdump »

supermatt wrote: post #144
deadbunny wrote: post #16

Yet despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth - both in the article and in the comments here in the various threads - people are still making excuses for continuing to use Apple/Google/Microsoft/et al products because the alternatives are a bit rough round the edges. These companies have repeatedly shown that they don't respect people's privacy and people have resoundingly responded that neither do they. I would…

A number of user stopping using these products wont change the slightest thing. We all encouraged our friends and family to ditch IE for chrome, and look where that got us. Legislation and regulation are the only fixes for these practices. The EC have a lot of kettles in the fire here - on multiple fronts. I trust that, although it will take time, "fairness" will prevail.

> We all encouraged our friends and family to ditch IE for chrome, and look where that got us.

I didn't. I encouraged friends and family to ditch IE for Firefox and nowadays I encourage them to ditch Chrome for Firefox. I never cared that Chrome was a little faster for some time.

One person that only uses the (very old and underpowered computer) for mail and printing documents I helped install Linux (not Ubuntu ;)) and since then they are much happier, because it doesn't get slower with each security update and needs less maintenance help than with Windows.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#164

Post by ernst_klim »

supermatt wrote: post #144
deadbunny wrote: post #16

Yet despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth - both in the article and in the comments here in the various threads - people are still making excuses for continuing to use Apple/Google/Microsoft/et al products because the alternatives are a bit rough round the edges. These companies have repeatedly shown that they don't respect people's privacy and people have resoundingly responded that neither do they. I would…

A number of user stopping using these products wont change the slightest thing. We all encouraged our friends and family to ditch IE for chrome, and look where that got us. Legislation and regulation are the only fixes for these practices. The EC have a lot of kettles in the fire here - on multiple fronts. I trust that, although it will take time, "fairness" will prevail.

> We all encouraged our friends and family to ditch IE for chrome, and look where that got us.

Antitrust entities bashed microsoft for shipping IE and look where that got us.

If anything, it's worth keeping in mind that volumes of regulations written for big corps may indeed force them to behave, but are an impediment for tiny companies to enter.

Corps like microsoft do call for regulations and copyright laws all the time, the have an army of lobbyists, they know that even without regulatory capture these extinguish competition.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#165

Post by coffeecat »

novok wrote: post #7

Thanks for summarizing a bunch of changes that make me depressed about modern computing. Now Android, 'privacy apple' macOS, iOS & Windows all act in similar way. The only thing left is bad user experience linux.

> The only thing left is bad user experience linux.

I occasionally have to use a Macbook for work. The last thing I want when I'm trying to get work done is: an unsolicited notification that OS updates are available, with no direct option to decline to update and dismiss the notification. I'd much rather update my system by issuing "pacman -Syu" on my own terms, and I consider Linux distros to offer a superior user experience in this regard.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#166

Post by mclightning »

ggsp wrote: post #155
mclightning wrote: post #146

Why so much of the privacy-scare activism is coming from Berlin? It is starting to feel like a bubble syndrome, rather than organic.

Maybe because Germans have a history with state surveillance?

Oh really? Nazis had surveillance system in place like todays?

I suspect this has a lot to do with huge amount of EU funds going into Berlin-based initiatives to make it the new Silicon Valley. Creating a culture of antipathy, against SV. Well, obviously picking on the most obvious wrongdoing SV has as of late years; privacy.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#167

Post by deepstack »

deadbunny wrote: post #16

Yet despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth - both in the article and in the comments here in the various threads - people are still making excuses for continuing to use Apple/Google/Microsoft/et al products because the alternatives are a bit rough round the edges. These companies have repeatedly shown that they don't respect people's privacy and people have resoundingly responded that neither do they. I would…

Apple has NOT being the same after steve is gone. It is MS 2.0 now!

With better design and products of course, none the less the business practices are the same. Much this is enforced by the current economic and political system.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#168

Post by innocenat »

ArchOversight wrote: post #148
sneak wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're absolutely right, and I use a Pixelbook and an iPad Pro for much the same reason. The cryptographic protections are great. (They'd be even more great if I could blow my own bootrom CA into the fuses.) The phone-home is the issue, however. I've long understood the issue with certificate validity periods and the tradeoffs between short notAfter/frequent reissue and revocation check intervals. The side effect is…

Having OCSP encrypted would cause a chicken and egg problem... OCSP is supposed to validate a certificate, but how do you check the validity of the certificate if the OCSP endpoint also requires validation?

Use plaintext to verify OCSP certificate first?

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#169

Post by szc »

sneak wrote: post #140
szc wrote: post #127

I'm not going to comment on the linked article, other than say I think it contains serious mistakes in describing what OCSP is for and errors in other statements. In the background there is a war going on, but it isn't what you think. It is a war between malware creators and OS creators. From my perspective it goes like this: To "identify" malware you need signatures. Signatures need valid certificates. Signing keys…

You're absolutely right, and I use a Pixelbook and an iPad Pro for much the same reason. The cryptographic protections are great. (They'd be even more great if I could blow my own bootrom CA into the fuses.) The phone-home is the issue, however. I've long understood the issue with certificate validity periods and the tradeoffs between short notAfter/frequent reissue and revocation check intervals. The side effect is…

I don't think that snooping on the connection explicitly reveals what app is being being launched - it just reveals the identity of the developer that signed it. But I agree that if the developer only has one App, then it does sort of give the game away.

Yes, and DNS is another example of Telemetry. What is google doing with the data they get from their DNS services?

I have in the past examined other devices - A QNAP NAS for example, phones home, sending the last part of the device MAC address. It did this once a minute from when it was turned on. I stoped using it - I do not know if this has changed in recent QNAS versions.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#170

Post by ernst_klim »

forest_dweller wrote: post #90
zepto wrote: post #59

For most people, if there computer was ‘theirs’, it would be that way for about 10 minutes until it was pwned by a bad actor. The general issue of other people (I.e. Apple et al) having a lot of control over your computer, is entirely valid even if some of the points in the piece are exaggerations. The problem is that people want it that way. They are in fact correct that computers are scary and too complex for them…

This is the same sort of logic that some people have that people shouldn't be allowed to make choices in life because they "might get it wrong". People should be allowed to make their own choices in what they believe to be their best interests and they should be allowed to get things wrong. > For most people, if there computer was ‘theirs’, it would be that way for about 10 minutes until it was pwned by a bad actor.…

> People should be allowed to make their own choices in what they believe to be their best interests

> You should be able to run whatever you like on it.

You are contradicting yourself. People are explicitly choosing iphone, a walled garden. Then you say that that's a wrong choice because you believe it's a general purpose computing device and should work differently.

If people buy it then, well, they are fine with it.

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