3 ms·
Perhaps what is broken is not our operating systems, but the notion that a computer program running on one's own computer can be an untrusted agent of a third p
by dTal 6y ago
Perhaps what is broken is not our operating systems, but the notion that a computer program running on one's own computer can be an untrusted agent of a third party. I don't the tools in my collection to be isolated from each other, dangerous creatures in a computerized zoo. I want them to be composable elements of a cohesive whole. I want them to share data so promiscuously that is difficult to tell where one program stops and another begins. Today, this vision of computing is best realized in the free software world, and I don't believe that is a coincidence. To make it work, your tools must be trustable, and the problem of trustable computing is fundamentally intertwined with the issue of free software. Can it be reconciled with a commercial model of software? I don't know, but if it's a choice, then I've made mine.
- sam_lowry_ 6y agoI will take this into my fortune file!
- dTal 6y agoI'm flattered! In that case do fix my typo: "I don't want the tools".
- infokiller 6y agoWhile I can appreciate your vision, that seems too detached from the current reality. Software development is a highly distributed system with many human participants with different (and sometimes conflicting) goals and skills. And to make it effective, you almost always need to reuse software created by many other people that you don't know (which incidentally creates a huge opportunity for supply chain attacks). In this reality, you get very little assurance about the authenticity and security of anything you use.