3 ms·

I don't know how workable this is in reality. Most software needs some kind of interoperability to be useful. - Network access - Direct hardware access (such

I don't know how workable this is in reality. Most software needs some kind of interoperability to be useful. - Network access - Direct hardware access (such as games accessing the GPU) - Sharing data to other software - Consuming data from other software - etc. As we've seen, we wind up needing to turn a bunch of these on for most software, and while it's certainly better than giving them carte blanche over the entire system, a handful of these permissions are enough to work some skullduggery.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
> - Network access Most software does not "need" network access, it just ends up being used for telemetry, serving ads, and checking for updates you probably don't need anyway. > Direct hardware access (such as games accessing the GPU) "Direct", meaning they need a context handle and some shared memory to get composited by the OS. Still, I'm honestly not sure why this isn't a solved problem today. Why are GPUs not virtualizable the way CPUs are? > - Sharing data to other software > - Consuming data from other software Software can be grouped together and allowed to talk among eachother within a certain context without giving any given piece of it the ability to burn the world down. You'll have a hard time convincing me that taking control away from users is a better solution.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- JohnBooty 7y ago
  I would think that manually granting (or revoking) specific permissions on a per-software basis equals more control, not less! I agree that users need full control. I also think a few decades of personal computing have shown us that the defaults should be pretty safe and therefore restrictive. Users should have to jump through a hoop or two (perhaps as simple as `sudo enable-expert-mode` in a terminal, or some such) before being able to shoot themselves in the foot.
chachachoney 7y ago
I think that one of the reason's we're behind on this is that major players aren't putting R&D into usable clusters of user managed permissions and tools for both power users and average users to manage and introspect them is precisely because they've found a way to both shirk the responsibility and exploit their users with an App Store. As a result, all users are imperiled.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago

> - Network access Most software does not "need" network access, it just ends up being used for telemetry, serving ads, and checking for updates you probably don't need anyway. > Direct hardware access (such as games accessing the GPU) "Direct", meaning they need a context handle and some shared memory to get composited by the OS. Still, I'm honestly not sure why this isn't a solved problem today. Why are GPUs not virtualizable the way CPUs are? > - Sharing data to other software > - Consuming data from other software Software can be grouped together and allowed to talk among eachother within a certain context without giving any given piece of it the ability to burn the world down. You'll have a hard time convincing me that taking control away from users is a better solution.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
JohnBooty 7y ago
I would think that manually granting (or revoking) specific permissions on a per-software basis equals more control, not less! I agree that users need full control. I also think a few decades of personal computing have shown us that the defaults should be pretty safe and therefore restrictive. Users should have to jump through a hoop or two (perhaps as simple as `sudo enable-expert-mode` in a terminal, or some such) before being able to shoot themselves in the foot.

chachachoney 7y ago

I think that one of the reason's we're behind on this is that major players aren't putting R&D into usable clusters of user managed permissions and tools for both power users and average users to manage and introspect them is precisely because they've found a way to both shirk the responsibility and exploit their users with an App Store. As a result, all users are imperiled.