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No, there's a fundamental difference. I'm not talking about running closed source software. Windows will happily execute any general purpose program you care to

by ef4 10y ago

No, there's a fundamental difference. I'm not talking about running closed source software. Windows will happily execute any general purpose program you care to throw at it. And how could it not, given the principal of Turing equivalence? DRM is different because it's a deliberate attempt to make a non-general computer. One that refuses to execute certain perfectly valid programs. Window and OSX will happily grant the owner the highest level of privileges and let you read or flip any bit in the system. DRM is about creating a privilege level that the owner cannot access.

eridius 10y ago
DRM is not different, you're just confused about what a "program" is. Windows/Linux/OS X defines a program in a specific way (e.g. that matches one or several known formats) and will happily execute programs that conform to that specification. But if you take a C source file that can be compiled into a valid program, Windows/Linux/OS X will not execute that C source file for you, it will only execute the results of compiling it. And DRM is no different. It just happens that the definition of "program" for DRM is different than the definition of "program" for your OS, and the compiler for your DRM computer is the process that takes the un-DRM'd content and wraps it in the DRM. > Window and OSX will happily grant the owner the highest level of privileges and let you read or flip any bit in the system. Not true. At the very least, you cannot muck with kernel memory, and OS X also prevents you from modifying a bunch of files on disk that are crucial for the operation of the system even if you have root access (this is called System Integrity Protection).
- ef4 10y ago
  > At the very least, you cannot muck with kernel memory You most certainly can. Anyone who has written a device driver has done it. > this is called System Integrity Protection That can be disabled during boot.
  - eridius 10y ago
    If you're writing a device driver, you're operating inside the kernel, effectively modifying the machine itself, rather than merely writing a program that the machine can run. And yes, SIP can be disabled, but OS X isn't granting you the permission do that, the recovery partition is. Once you've booted into OS X you cannot modify SIP. So again, it's more akin to modifying the machine itself.

by ef4 10y ago

eridius 10y ago

DRM is not different, you're just confused about what a "program" is. Windows/Linux/OS X defines a program in a specific way (e.g. that matches one or several known formats) and will happily execute programs that conform to that specification. But if you take a C source file that can be compiled into a valid program, Windows/Linux/OS X will not execute that C source file for you, it will only execute the results of compiling it. And DRM is no different. It just happens that the definition of "program" for DRM is different than the definition of "program" for your OS, and the compiler for your DRM computer is the process that takes the un-DRM'd content and wraps it in the DRM. > Window and OSX will happily grant the owner the highest level of privileges and let you read or flip any bit in the system. Not true. At the very least, you cannot muck with kernel memory, and OS X also prevents you from modifying a bunch of files on disk that are crucial for the operation of the system even if you have root access (this is called System Integrity Protection).

ef4 10y ago
> At the very least, you cannot muck with kernel memory You most certainly can. Anyone who has written a device driver has done it. > this is called System Integrity Protection That can be disabled during boot.
- eridius 10y ago
  If you're writing a device driver, you're operating inside the kernel, effectively modifying the machine itself, rather than merely writing a program that the machine can run. And yes, SIP can be disabled, but OS X isn't granting you the permission do that, the recovery partition is. Once you've booted into OS X you cannot modify SIP. So again, it's more akin to modifying the machine itself.