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Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

a16z.com

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Re: Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

#61

Post by Mc91 »

walrus01 wrote: post #15

It's unclear to me if the person who wrote "who controls the Internet" has ever interacted with core internet infrastructure at the router, BGP, major transit and transport service provider ISP level. I find it very hard to take seriously prognostication from persons who've never been responsible for even a small sized ASN. Persons I do take seriously when they prognosticate on the future of the Internet: The individ…

These are the technicians who control IP.

For the US this can really be whittled down more - the people who go to IETF and NANOG meetings that work for AT&T and Verizon. Because the vast majority of Americans are dependent on pipes or cell phone coverage from those two companies.

Re: Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

#62

Post by phkahler »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #50

Nice article, I just posted the link on my Mastodon [1] account, which seems appropriate. I understand that HN people who work for Internet platform companies like Facebook and Google push back on using open protocols and open distributed systems - never blame people for doing things in their self interest. For the rest of us, for social, tech, and political reasons, I hope that we can push back at least a little aga…

>> I understand that HN people who work for Internet platform companies like Facebook and Google push back on using open protocols and open distributed systems - never blame people for doing things in their self interest.

Strongly disagree. Live and let live is fine so long as we dont screw each other over. In those cases they are being actively hostile to peoples freedom. When they push, push back as hard as you can. Push them down the stairs if that's what it takes to make them see their self interest is actively hostile to others.

(No, I'm not advocating violence, just taking the term "pushback" to the next metaphorical level. Ugh)

Re: Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

#63

Post by jimmygrapes »

phkahler wrote: post #62
mark_l_watson wrote: post #50

Nice article, I just posted the link on my Mastodon [1] account, which seems appropriate. I understand that HN people who work for Internet platform companies like Facebook and Google push back on using open protocols and open distributed systems - never blame people for doing things in their self interest. For the rest of us, for social, tech, and political reasons, I hope that we can push back at least a little aga…

>> I understand that HN people who work for Internet platform companies like Facebook and Google push back on using open protocols and open distributed systems - never blame people for doing things in their self interest. Strongly disagree. Live and let live is fine so long as we dont screw each other over. In those cases they are being actively hostile to peoples freedom. When they push, push back as hard as you can…

Fight like hell.

Re: Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

#64

Post by ketamine__ »

melomal wrote: post #23
walrus01 wrote: post #15

It's unclear to me if the person who wrote "who controls the Internet" has ever interacted with core internet infrastructure at the router, BGP, major transit and transport service provider ISP level. I find it very hard to take seriously prognostication from persons who've never been responsible for even a small sized ASN. Persons I do take seriously when they prognosticate on the future of the Internet: The individ…

There was a recent post from an A16Z insider that basically made it clear that they are nothing more than a media house with VC capabilities. This is probably why the person writing it doesn't make much sense to you.

Link?

Re: Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

#66

Post by nickpp »

melomal wrote: post #23
walrus01 wrote: post #15

It's unclear to me if the person who wrote "who controls the Internet" has ever interacted with core internet infrastructure at the router, BGP, major transit and transport service provider ISP level. I find it very hard to take seriously prognostication from persons who've never been responsible for even a small sized ASN. Persons I do take seriously when they prognosticate on the future of the Internet: The individ…

There was a recent post from an A16Z insider that basically made it clear that they are nothing more than a media house with VC capabilities. This is probably why the person writing it doesn't make much sense to you.

That was a hit piece. Another salvo in the mainstream media's ongoing war on Silicon Valley.

Re: Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

#67

Post by rfrey »

nickpp wrote: post #66
melomal wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a recent post from an A16Z insider that basically made it clear that they are nothing more than a media house with VC capabilities. This is probably why the person writing it doesn't make much sense to you.

That was a hit piece. Another salvo in the mainstream media's ongoing war on Silicon Valley.

Is there any group at all that doesn't think that the "mainstream media" boogeyman is at war with them?

Re: Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

#68

Post by dane-pgp »

young_unixer wrote: post #10
fartcannon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What problems are those?

1. We need a clear separation between system programs and application programs, so that a user can install the latest version of Python without it ever colliding with the outdated version of Python that the OS uses internally. The user shouldn't even need to be aware of the existence of the other Python. 2. The default way to install third-party application software shouldn't depend on repositories or servers. It sho…

> We need a clear separation between system programs and application programs ... The default way to install third-party application software shouldn't depend on repositories or servers. It should be based on installing files, just like on Windows.

So the end goal is for a system where users download random binaries off the net, which never get any security patches and leave dozens of copies of vulnerable dependencies lying around?

> Additionally, a permission system like Android's could be a good idea.

Even with a permission system like Android's, how are you going to stop malicious applications from exfiltrating all the files in your home directory, or recording all your keystrokes, or spying on your clipboard, or putting up a fake password prompt, or mining bitcoin with your GPU, or just escaping whatever sandbox you think you're running them in?

If those are the risks I have to put up with in order to run a bleeding-edge Python interpreter on my system, then I think I'll pass. I guess that makes me an old_unixer.

Re: Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

#69

Post by motohagiography »

walrus01 wrote: post #15

It's unclear to me if the person who wrote "who controls the Internet" has ever interacted with core internet infrastructure at the router, BGP, major transit and transport service provider ISP level. I find it very hard to take seriously prognostication from persons who've never been responsible for even a small sized ASN. Persons I do take seriously when they prognosticate on the future of the Internet: The individ…

Interesting criteria, as I had 'enable' on AS701 among several others for a few years, and understand where the article is coming from. I do think the smart bet would be on divergence before change. The analogy I think that fits is the blockchain community today is like if the NetBSD community grew without Linux ever happening. There is still a more accessible culture-purpose-specific linux-like framework for the next overlay "networking" stack to emerge.

Re: Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

#70

Post by jcims »

jacquesm wrote: post #55
jcims wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 'grew up' on networking in the late 90's when next to nothing was encrypted on the wire. The amount of understanding I was able to develop about how protocols work by just sniffing the packets was immense. I see folks coming out of school these days and while they far surpass my skills with software development they don't really have any intuition about how the protocols work at the network level, and as a result t…

Another big change was the move to switched networks. Coming from a shared lan that felt like being blind.

Great point! Then you'd span ports just to get the same visibility you used to have but somehow it felt sneaky haha.
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