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Your Computer Isn't Yours

sneak.berlin

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Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#511

Post by zepto »

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 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.“

I am not making any argument that can be construed as this. You are misreading me if you think I am. I agree that people should be allowed to make their own choices which is why I strongly oppose government regulation of software distribution. It’s also why I support people’s right to choose platforms like iOS.

“Something has to change. We are sliding back into the 1980s where all the computer hardware was incompatible with one another.”

I’m not sure freedom and compatibility always go hand in hand, but I agree that something has to change.

As to the tinkerers and people building their own rigs - the idea that there is a large spectrum. I potentially agree.

Serving those people well is a hugely untapped potential. I used to believe that Apple would see this, but I no longer do. I suspect that Jobs would have done.

I would like to think the open source community and commercial ecosystem outside of Apple and Microsoft can seize the opportunity.

We won’t if we spend our time feeling victimized by corporations doing what corporations do.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#512

Post by moksly »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #416
goatinaboat wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's becoming the antithesis of everything that the original Hacker culture stood for. A hacker in the “Hacker News” sense is more than likely working on an ad-supported web app and dreams of working at a FAANG. The old hacker dream is dead, sadly.

You're not looking hard enough, which is also part of the problem. Back in the "golden years" you'd have to put effort in to finding and participating in the community. The real hackers are still somewhat underground simply because they're anti establishment; actively seeking out the high effort, loss making niches that attract fringe thinkers and the unique characters required for true innovation. Crypto parties, ma…

We have an open space workshop and hack shop in my town, and it’s frequented by quite a lot of people. You’ll see anything IoT, 3D printing and Linux you can imagine being hacked upon. You can also see people building race cars, or ideas that eventually turn into businesses.

Everyone has an Apple or android device, and macs are easily make up 90% of the personal workhorse laptops. Because at the end of the day, technology that just works, is nice too.

I get that it’s probably very different in crypto communities, but we don’t really have any of those around here. I wouldn’t say that real hackers aren’t using walled gardens though.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#513

Post by loxs »

jrib wrote: post #338
zanny wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Next laptop for me is going to be from a company that explicitly supports linux. Probably dell or lenovo. A lot of people like to rag on Ubuntu. I agree with some of the criticisms. But the one thing they have done right is broker partnerships with hardware vendors like dell and lenovo. https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/overview/cp/linuxsystem... https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-laun...

I did that already with a ThinkPad T495. Couldn't be happier. With Arch Linux and KDE it's objectively far superior to Mac OS for development (I do mostly TypeScript and Rust).

The crazy thing is that I've been blind to the massive improvement that happened in Linux-land for the 7 years I was using Mac OS.

Of course there is still some PITA with missing productivity software (in my case for hobby photography), but so far I am determined to suffer with open source tools and maybe try to contribute a little.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#514

Post by smsx »

moondev wrote: post #473
ovi256 wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>latest version of Mac OS broke docker That's wrong, Docker will run fine on M1/Big Sur after an ARM release and probably some patching. Not too different what you'd expect on any major OS release.

How do you know it will?

Because Docker has a large financial incentive to get it working?

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#515

Post by userbinator »

Things like this are why I continue to use old hardware and software, and my laptop runs Coreboot.

People will try to spin that as "insecure" or worse, but how is a system with no open ports and zero unsolicited outbound network activity any more insecure than the invasively user-hostile spyware-ridden software today? It's because they are trying to "protect" users from themselves, which so conveniently means taking control away from them.

Many will argue they don't need or want that control --- but that also has consequences for those who do, as the minority slowly gets squeezed out; and when users realise how much they can't do anymore because of these restrictions, it will already be too late. That classic Franklin quote has gained a new meaning in these times.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#516

Post by gspr »

I'll try my heavily downvoted comment from another thread again (I do regret the wording "wake up, people", it sounds too much like conspiracy nutjobs, but whatever):

Wake up, people. Free software is the last line of defense we have left before technological tools are completely taken away from us, and we all have to live our digital lives at the behest of Giant Megacorps.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#517

Post by zepto »

ernst_klim wrote: post #491
forest_dweller wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Of course they are. You need to invest a lot in your platform to make it convenient, so you have to be able to monetize it well enough.

I agree with forest dweller - they are not mutually exclusive.

There are many open source products that have had huge investments without monetization.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#518

Post by ovi256 »

moondev wrote: post #473
ovi256 wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>latest version of Mac OS broke docker That's wrong, Docker will run fine on M1/Big Sur after an ARM release and probably some patching. Not too different what you'd expect on any major OS release.

How do you know it will?

Because M1 has virtualization and emulation support, unlike the A12Z (not M1) ARM processor on which the docker issue was opened. This is explained here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25073010

And Docker has the motivation and means to patch and build the M1 Arm version.

You can take it directly from the Docker people:

> Thanks. We're working closely on this with Apple. This is expected right now (and indeed there's nothing we can do about it yet) as the new chips don't have virtualisation support yet.

https://github.com/docker/for-mac/issues/4733

Notice the lack of panic or any mention of "it'll never be done", even implied.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#519

Post by easton »

moondev wrote: post #473
ovi256 wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>latest version of Mac OS broke docker That's wrong, Docker will run fine on M1/Big Sur after an ARM release and probably some patching. Not too different what you'd expect on any major OS release.

How do you know it will?

Apple showed it on stage at WWDC, along with Debian ARM running inside a VM. It's coming, if for no other reason than developers inside Apple need it when writing infrastructure software. (Honestly, I'm surprised that Docker didn't get the same pre-release hardware Parallels did)

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#520

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

julianlam wrote: post #340
Freak_NL wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy one of the many laptops that work out of the box with GNU/Linux. Vote for manufacturers with your money. It's not that hard. I haven't had to spends days configuring anything for over a decade.

My colleagues often joke that I have to recompile my kernel whenever I want to do something novel with my computer. I play along, but I haven't compiled a single thing in years. I don't even think proper build tools are installed on my PC.

I find that statement a bit dubious, but I guess if you only use tools that are in the repo and Chrome that's probably easy enough to accomplish. I remember fairly recently having to compile my own dosbox because of a many-years-old bug that remains unfixed and causes garbage graphics in black borders [0].

My history of using Linux desktop is riddled with crap like that.

[0] https://sourceforge.net/p/dosbox/bugs/447/

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