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Joined 4 years ago
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Cake day: January 17th, 2022

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  • I think that’s an important distinction here :

    • there can be NO genuinely open devices

    versus

    • open devices can’t be popular

    So when you say “what’s frustrating is that we can’t really vote with our wallets, and any right-to-repair or consumer-is-in-charge movement is going to be limited by intelligence agencies, corporations like John Deere, Apple, and the entire entertainment industry” I disagree.

    We CAN really vote with our wallets precisely by purchasing things like Precursor, MNT, NitroKey, etc while at the same time expecting, sadly, that it won’t become the most popular devices in the market. I believe allowing creators and maintainers of such system, and even distributors like CrowdSupply, to exist even though they are and might always remain niche, is already empowering. So I’d argue both of us already voted with our wallets on this topic and our acquaintances too.

    I’d also be cautious about preemptive pessimism. Sure it’s important to be mindful of worrisome examples like the FlipperZero (which AFAICT is only banned for purchase in Brazil due to lack of Anatel’s certification for wireless, I believe it’s possible to legally bring and use a FlipperZero in the country but I’m not a lawyer) or DRM for streaming (which I thought was a huge deal until I disabled DRM support in my browser and basically nothing changed in my browsing habits) precisely to learn from them. Also FWIW I did gather some ideas on the topic at https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/SwappingPartsOfTheRestrictionStack so I’d be curious about your opinion on the topic, suggestions welcomed.


  • TPM. It’s what protects your phone and servers from attackers. Desktop would also benefit from it a lot.

    Hard disagree here, TPM is only 1 more protection, it’s not what alone does protect your data.

    Also desktop vs phone and servers are very different use cases. You can easily get your phone stolen in a public space. Your server if it hosted in a data center you don’t own might get compromised … but your desktop, it means breaking in or inviting in guests you do not trust. The situations are very different. Encrypting disks on a small device holding sensitive data, e.g. banking, that can easily be taken from you in public makes sense for most people. Doing so on a heavy bulky device that sits in your locked house where is quite another thing.





  • Historical context : it’s a 1yo post.

    TPM itself isn’t the problem. TPM itself technical might be a good solution, what the FSF precisely put forward is “out of the user’s control”. They even mention how it’s not about theoretical ideas but how it’s actually used. If Microsoft gets to decide HOW your computers works DESPITE you wanting NOT to behave that way AND it makes Microsoft itself, or its partners, even more entrenched then it’s a serious problem, it means “your” computer is their computer.

    What we have all witnessed is that bit by bit OSes like Windows, but also MacOS and Android, are not simply providing stores or tightly controllers channel (with fees for themselves) but ALSO removing entirely, or making it radically harder, to install software the user actually wants to install (not malware).

    It’s not about TPM, it’s as usual about who control your computer.







  • fabien@debian2080ti:~$ history  | sed 's/ ..... //' | sort | uniq -c | sort -n | tail
    # with parameters
         13 cd Prototypes/
         14 adb disconnect; cd ~/Downloads/Shows/ ; adb connect videoprojector ;
         14 cd ..
         21 s # alias s='ssh shell -t "screen -raAD"'
         36 node .
         36 ./todo 
         42 vi index.js 
         42 vi todo # which I use as metadata or starting script in ~/Prototypes
         44 ls
        105 lr # alias lr="ls -lrth"
    fabien@debian2080ti:~$ history  | sed 's/ ..... //' | sed 's/ .*//' | sort | uniq -c | sort -n | tail
    # without parameters
         35 rm
         36 node
         36 ./todo
         39 git
         39 mv
         70 ls
         71 adb
         96 cd
        110 lr
        118 vi