521–530 of 1001 posts
Or: One (a big entity with enough resources) should take this as an opportunity and create a new, third truly open alternative to iOS and Android (no, I'm not talking about an AOSP fork, I'm saying something totally new) and let iOS/Android have their thing as they want, letting consumers decide between the three instead of forcing vendors into ridiculous business decisions like forcefully opening their own platforms…
> In this context this would mean having the ability and documentation to build or install alternative operating systems on this hardware It doesn't work. Everything from banks to Netflix and others are slowly edging out anything where they can't fully verify the chain of control to an entity they can have a legal or contractual relationship with. To be clear, this is fundamental, not incidental. You can't run your o…
E.g. if using open free platforms was already the norm, netflix requiring a verified OS would just result in netflix becoming unusable for most people rather than just killing a couple edgecases used by a relatively small number of people. And so it would no longer be in their financial interest. It's why we've had desktops for so long without this happening, although the pieces are finally being put in place to make it a reality.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the netherlands we do not have physical branches anymore. They died out. All banking started to go through browser. This was very sensitive to malware and viruses, so two-factor was added through phones. Then less and less people had PCs because phone provides enough. Now mobile apps for banking is the only way to do banking. Or it is required for MFA. Even if you’re calling with the bank it is used as MFA
I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes impossible to even use cash in the Netherlands soon enough. The first year I was here I don't think I did even once. I've been using cash a lot more lately just out of principle and it's annoying - lots of pin-only check out lines, etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> as soon as passkeys started popping up the endgame became clear That's why I'm 100% against passkeys. I'll never use them and I'll make sure nobody I know does. They're just a lock-in mechanism.
"Passkeys" is a new brand name slapped on an older open, interoperable technology, so it's difficult for me to be "against passkeys" as they haven't fundamentally changed anything. Before the branding they were known as FIDO2 "discoverable credentials" or "resident keys". Two things have changed with the rebrand: 1. A lot of platforms are adopting support for FIDO2 resident keys. This is good actually. 2. A lot of la…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I like about your comment is that it points out that all technical work-arounds are moot if people as a whole are not willing to stand up with pitchforks and torches to defend their freedoms. It will always come down to that. A handful of tech-savvy users with rooted devices and open-source software will not make a difference to the giant crushing machine that is the system. And I'm afraid most of us are part of…
Only competition can provide a solution. We have lost sight of this principle even though all Western democracies are built on the idea of separation of powers, and making it hard for any one faction of elites to gain full control and ruin things for everyone else. Make them fight with each other, let them get a piece of the pie, but never all of it. That's why we have multiple branches of government, multiple partie…
I wouldn't call it utopian, but I'd say we are way past "peak democracy" at this point.
There was a time in which corporations did get broken up when too large, when we did understand that it's about serving the population first and accumulating wealth after that, when corporations influencing politics was widely seen as a negative. It does seem to me we are now way past that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the netherlands we do not have physical branches anymore. They died out. All banking started to go through browser. This was very sensitive to malware and viruses, so two-factor was added through phones. Then less and less people had PCs because phone provides enough. Now mobile apps for banking is the only way to do banking. Or it is required for MFA. Even if you’re calling with the bank it is used as MFA
I still do banking through a random reader at ABN AMRO. I really hope they never get rid of it because I trust that little dumb plastic device 1000% more than my phone.
They make you use this separate device to scan a color qr code generated by the app. The details of the transaction you're authorizing are then displayed on this completely decoupled device, no internet, nothing. After keying in your pin you're given an OTP to put back into the app to authorize.
And I haven't checked, but I'm sure the 'payload' the qr code conveys is signed.
> building new operating systems to run on mobile hardware is impossible, or at least much harder than it should be. Why isn't there a linux flavor for phones with an app store?
This makes the point that the real battle we should be fighting is not for control of Android/iOS, but the ability to run other operating systems on phones. That would be great, but as the author acknowledges, building those alternatives is basically impossible. Even assuming that building a solid alternative is feasible, though, I don't think their point stands. Generally I'm not keen on legislatively forcing a deve…
> as the author acknowledges, building those alternatives is basically impossible I don't understand why everybody is ignoring existing, working GNU/Linux phones: Librem 5 and Pinephone. The former is my daily driver btw.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody said that... You can keep your device enslaved to Apple all you want. You don't have to use the administrator permissions on Windows if you don't want them. Some of us do want freedom You've got it completely backwards that having the option to control your hardware means you, as an individual, are impacted by anything at all if you don't want to administrate your own device
How do you enable administrator permissions on your Windows computer?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everything in life is about trade-offs. Certain trade-offs people aren't going to make. - If you want to run an alternative operating system, you got to learn how it works. That is a trade off not even many tech savvy people want to make. - There is a trade-off with a desktop OS. I actually like the fact that it isn't super sand-boxed and locked down. I am willing to trade security & safety for control. > Personally…
No, not everything is a trade-off. Some things are just good and some are just bad. A working permission system would be objectively good. By that I mean one where a program called "image-editor" can only access "~/.config/image-editor", and files that you "File > Open". And if you want to bypass that and give it full permissions, it can be as simple as `$ yolo image-editor` or `# echo /usr/bin/image-editor >> /etc/y…
Anything that is proposed has a cost associated with it (time, money). That always has to be weighed up against any potential benefit.