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Your Computer Isn't Yours

sneak.berlin

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Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#211

Post by ernst_klim »

long_warmup wrote: post #196
ernst_klim wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 i…

> If people buy it then, well, they are fine with it. I don't think people have much choice these days. If you want a smartphone then you will either get something from Apple or from Android people. There are other choices but are they mainstream? In my local shops I can't see anything else. Android or Apple. That's why I'm buying PinePhone and going to waste lots of my life to make it fit my needs, but I hope once t…

> I don't think people have much choice these days.

Well, choice is about compromise. You have to choose between freedom and convenience, but you can choose. I'm saying that as a person who used 4 linux phones as daily drivers for last 10 years (n900, n9, jolla, xperia with sailfish).

> There are other choices but are they mainstream

Well there are. Maybe they are not mainstream because people value convenience over freedom, which is unfortunate to me, but who am I to dictate them my values.

At least there are always some linux phones to choose from, and hopefully fabless/new open platforms would even increase the amount of such. I mean, 10 years ago it was nokia or nothing, today there are pinephone, fairphone, librem

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#213

Post by bergstromm466 »

szc wrote: post #185
sooheon wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has been a part of PRISM since 2012. Apple is a US company, and bound by law to give access when push comes to shove.

Sorry, but there are no details about how PRISM works. The 2012 date is also suspicious - it is in the same year a new Apple datacenter in Prineville came online. I personally think that PRISM works by externally intercepting data communication lines running to / from the unwitting companies. The NSA has previously tapped lines (AT&T), but they made the mistake of doing it inside the AT&T building. That eventually le…

> Sorry, but please can you point to any real evidence that Apple allows state-level actors access? From what I can see it is exactly the opposite.

> Sorry, but there are no details about how PRISM works.

> I personally think that PRISM works by externally intercepting data communication lines running to / from the unwitting companies.

Unless you can prove you're ex-NSA or worked in SIGINT, sharing your opinion is not proof. Snowden's leaks are proof.

Why not give weight to the arguments and proof put forth by Edward Snowden? There have been no attempts by the US govt. or the NSA to disprove his leaks. No counter-evidence presented.

My question is: what do you benefit from continuing to deny and refuse to accept Snowden's whistleblowing?

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#214

Post by globular-toast »

I thought this was going to be about the Intel Management Engine or something. Well, I don't use a Mac. I never have and never will. I run a general-purpose x86-64 computer with Gentoo GNU/Linux on it. It's mine. I know other people don't own their computers. I've known that for years. Other people don't own their cars or houses either.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#215

Post by comfyinnernet »

arminiusreturns wrote: post #79

I'm so glad I caught onto RMS and Eben Moglen when I did. I saw this coming a long way off, and have spent a lot of my time completely gpl'ing my daily use stack. There are a few rare exceptions (steam being the largest one)... but I'm happy I put in the effort. What we are headed for is a world where a certain subset of people with the technical knowledge have computing freedom, and that vast majority giving up all…

"a world where a certain subset of people with the technical knowledge have computing freedom"

Even that is optimistic.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#216

Post by eecc »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #143

What we poor souls didn't understand all these years is that we're effectively helping other companies to steal from Apple by running software that isn't distributed via their app store [1]. I think now that Apple has learned from iOS how profitable a walled garden business model is they are trying to bring that model to the PC world as well. Shipping hardware with their own processors is an important step in that di…

But also Windows phones home.m and Linux desktop is still a shitshow (pardon the French) arguing over and over again about the same melange of disputes that should have been settled a decade ago...

Not sure if it’s a sign of aging, but I’m losing hope and interest in most of these pantomimes /s

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#217

Post by oneplane »

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.…

This is hardly about choices and more about shared resources and interaction. You can do whatever you want, but you can't do it to whatever/whoever you want.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#218

Post by Guthur »

shawxe wrote: post #65
mistermann wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, if this was truly a big deal, it would be a political issue with bipartisan support and taken care of short order. In times of strife, at least there's one thing you can always count on: Democracy . It never fails. If you can just remember that one thing, you should be able to sleep soundly at night. (It works for me at least, I used to be a constant worrywart until I learned this trick from my therapist,…

> To be fair, if this was truly a big deal, it would be a political issue with bipartisan support and taken care of short order. Are you serious? Since you're using the term bipartisan, I'm going to assume you're also from the US. Have you been following the news/current events recently (and by recently, really I mean any time at all over the course of the past forty or fifty years)? Almost nothing actually gets "bip…

Democracy is probably fine, it's the fact that we allowed politicians anywhere near it that's the problem...

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#219

Post by emptysongglass »

zanny wrote: post #178
ThePhysicist wrote: post #143

What we poor souls didn't understand all these years is that we're effectively helping other companies to steal from Apple by running software that isn't distributed via their app store [1]. I think now that Apple has learned from iOS how profitable a walled garden business model is they are trying to bring that model to the PC world as well. Shipping hardware with their own processors is an important step in that di…

Good thing said hacker culture spent 15 years buying inflated laptops and desktops from them ultimately for convenience to give them the market presence to do this in the first place. Its the same thing with Windows. People will preach all day that they won't make any personal sacrifices to try to avoid feeding literal cancers that are eating the software industry and are shocked when said all consuming voids take aw…

What's worse is the number of other posts with the top comments being vociferous defenses of these companies as if they needed these people to defend them or cared one iota for their welfare. It feels like it's Stockholm Syndrome on a mass scale.

I worry for Gen Z because they're tiny-mobile-device native. And the only usable tiny mobile devices are walled gardens. They scream outrage when they're not allowed their tiny little dance-jig operators provided courtesy of an abusive regime.

Sure, I reflect that I may be now nearing the curve of an obsolescent person attached to such silly outmoded principles like "ethics" but if we're all just selling ourselves out constantly to the angry god-machine of the id, is this really the future we want for our daughters and sons?

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#220

Post by forest_dweller »

ernst_klim wrote: post #211
long_warmup wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If people buy it then, well, they are fine with it. I don't think people have much choice these days. If you want a smartphone then you will either get something from Apple or from Android people. There are other choices but are they mainstream? In my local shops I can't see anything else. Android or Apple. That's why I'm buying PinePhone and going to waste lots of my life to make it fit my needs, but I hope once t…

> I don't think people have much choice these days. Well, choice is about compromise. You have to choose between freedom and convenience, but you can choose. I'm saying that as a person who used 4 linux phones as daily drivers for last 10 years (n900, n9, jolla, xperia with sailfish). > There are other choices but are they mainstream Well there are. Maybe they are not mainstream because people value convenience over…

Why should you choose between freedom and convenience? They are not mutually exclusive.
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