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Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

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Re: Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

#321

Post by kungtotte »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #233
andrepd wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 7 is due to stop being updated very soon, all the while the only alternative is to downgrade into Windows 10.j sure don't call that "basically forever".

1. Windows 7 was supported with security updates for over 10 years (2009-2020). Second to only Windows XP (13 years) 2. They offered free upgrades to Windows 10 for a long time (a year?) 3. Replacement cycles for consumer desktops/laptops are short relative to OS cycles, with some internet stats saying ~5 years on average. 4. You can still run Windows 7, you just won't get security updates. You're free to repair it o…

How is your fourth point relevant in this discussion? Nobody is saying that devices are bricked as soon as they're unsupported, just that they become increasingly insecure without support and they contrast this with free and open OSes that keep working forever.

Re: Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

#322

Post by Erlich_Bachman »

gowld wrote: post #224
ssivark wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app ecosystem is just a matter of time, once there exists a solid foundation. We need the breakthrough device that will make it possible to get started. Consider Linux on the desktop. For about a decade after it became popular (late 90s) ie till late 2000s, the user experience was crappy, and the app ecosystem was sparse. But they developed so well over the next ten years that in many ways Linux today is more use…

95% of the market does not find Linux more user-friendly than Windows/MacOS. While Linux was getting its shoelaces tied, ChromeOS showed up and put the lie to the dream that any user-controlled Linux would satisfy the market's needs. 2020 is the Year of Linux on the Desktop.

> 95% of the market does not find Linux more user-friendly than Windows/MacOS

Who cares? 95% of the market does not find adblock user-friendly, even though they all hate commercials and complain about them, and would clearly benefit from installing it. Most people just don't care about their own experience too much, or just ignorant. The point is that Linux desktop has had a breakthrough critical mass of usage and that has lead to availability of high quality options, so in terms of usability Linux is one of best desktop/laptop options of today already. It is not about getting everyone onboard, it's about critical mass.

Re: Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

#324

Post by justinclift »

FactolSarin wrote: post #194
aguyfromnb wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This month, Google shipped the last update for my Pixel phone. The hardware is functional and in great shape, but I don't think there are any truly viable ways for me to keep it secure. The same thing happened recently with the Chromebook I purchased for my significant other. She's a very light computer user, so we thought it was a perfect device. It was great, until one day she received a message saying, essential…

Microsoft products get supported basically forever. But they're not cool/trendy.

Excuse me if I don't believe you.

The Win 7 VM we (sqlitebrowser.org) use for our Windows nightly builds stopped receiving Windows Updates a few months ago.

Microsoft seems to have decided to not honour the (legit) serial from MSDN. With no warning or explanation.

Re: Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

#325

Post by rendaw »

geofft wrote: post #57
ISL wrote: post #14

Right to repair is increasingly hitting people outside of agrarian/industrial contexts. This month, Google shipped the last update for my Pixel phone. The hardware is functional and in great shape, but I don't think there are any truly viable ways for me to keep it secure. I have a tablet that long-ago met the same fate. This is in the same world where I can 'apt-get update' my seven-year old desktop and work with ap…

> It is my understanding that the primary blocker to serious open-source kernel development on phones is closed-source drivers for the phone hardware. For what it's worth, Google (or at least parts of Google) agrees that the closed-source drivers are a problem for extended security lifecycle, and they're working with the Linux community to a) extend the kernel LTS cycle to 6 years b) make something that looks awfully…

> For what it's worth, Google (or at least parts of Google) agrees that the closed-source drivers are a problem for extended security lifecycle, and they're working...

I thought you were going to say that they're working to open source the drivers.

Re: Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

#326

Post by justinclift »

tempestn wrote: post #268
catalogia wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

13 years of support may very well be above and beyond the norm in the software industry, but that doesn't make it "basically forever".

The free update to Windows 10 does though. And despite your GP's rhetorical flourish, it's hardly a "downgrade".

Well, it's definitely not an upgrade. There's no way to maintain privacy with Win10 by simply turning off telemetry once and calling it a day.

Sleazy bastards.

Re: Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

#327

Post by coupdejarnac »

lbotos wrote: post #270
closetohome wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The search for an ongoing revenue stream is one of the most destructive forces in the tech industry. It leads to some very customer-hostile experiences.

My fave is "subscription headphones": https://www.nuraphone.com/products/nuranow

Interesting, I've been looking for case studies like this. I'm curious if there has been anything similar that managed to turn a long term profit.

Re: Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

#328

Post by mcv »

h0l0cube wrote: post #285
metiscus wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the plant, you'll get either of the two species used to make the hybrid instead of the hybrid itself.

Thank you, and excuse my naivete here. So what makes the hybrid route the optimal way to produce these GM plants, rather than cross-breeding in a way that survives reproduction? Do we know GM crops to always be hybrids of this nature?

It's not just GM plants. In fact, the GM crops might not even be hybrids at all (I don't really know). But many fruits that we love, like most citrus fruits, as well as bananas, are the result of cross-breeding between different species.

Why is this optimal? Well, I guess it isn't always. I'm willing to bet there are more failed hybrids than successful ones, but sometimes when you combine traits from different species, you get something that's bigger or tastier than the originals.

I have no idea about other crops; I was under the impression that grain and many other common crops could be replanted, but maybe it can't.

Re: Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

#329

Post by pathseeker »

tempestn wrote: post #313
anfilt wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea pretty much. This video starts off with a nice demo of the concept. https://youtu.be/sFrVdoOhu1Q

Great, thank you. As an aside, I love listening to people with accents explain things, so the video was doubly enjoyable! Edit some time later: And then perhaps I'll go down an hours-long rabbit hole watching all his videos and learning a ton about machining...

>I love listening to people with accents explain things

Are there people without accents that explain things? Because that would be a video I want to see.

Re: Nebraska farmers vote overwhelmingly for Right to Repair

#330

Post by clarry »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #254
aguyfromnb wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This month, Google shipped the last update for my Pixel phone. The hardware is functional and in great shape, but I don't think there are any truly viable ways for me to keep it secure. The same thing happened recently with the Chromebook I purchased for my significant other. She's a very light computer user, so we thought it was a perfect device. It was great, until one day she received a message saying, essential…

I wonder if we can imagine a future where most software is simply released in a secure state, or it's not humanly possible to design sufficiently-advanced software that is anything but a teetering stack of security holes just waiting to be discovered.

I think it's possible to make fairly secure software but it's a massive change from the way software is put together today. Nobody really wants to pay for that.

Even stuff like OS research (which is what we need if we want a proper security model and a system not written in a horribly unsafe language) is virtually dead because the second you bring up some new experimental system, geeks are going to gang up against you with "what about my legacy proprietary applications, and what about drivers! this is worthless! everyone should just use linux!"

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