4 ms·

Eh, yes, we have much more locked down systems with reduced capabilities. Consoles used it maybe for years and they are notorious for being useless for any thir

Eh, yes, we have much more locked down systems with reduced capabilities. Consoles used it maybe for years and they are notorious for being useless for any third party content. You cannot simply write your own drivers for several devices anymore, so you basically booted a lot of engineers. It infected whole industries. We have locked down agricultural devices where users pay for expensive hacks. It is a complete nightmare actually. For security... sure... actually not even my grandmother would believe it.

ashtonkem 6y ago
Consoles haven’t been open for 30 years, but I can still run unsigned code on my Mac. They’re not a good argument for us actually sliding down a slippery slope. And writing drivers for hardware has often been impossible or effectively so due to poor documentation and/or signing. Do you not remember the era when most WiFi cards didn’t work with Linux, or when graphics cards required closed source binary blobs to even work? I get you don’t like it on principle, so maybe you shouldn’t buy a Mac, but the idea that we’re going down a slippery slope is very much [citation needed]
- raxxorrax 6y ago
  I remember the time and I could just fix the driver in some cases at least. And people did and provided solutions. Windows also introduced software signing for drivers and user software, so yes, prevalence does increase while no benefits are provided. What is the advantage of an nvidia binary blob for Linux if it is signed or not. Was downloading from a trusted source a problem? We had hashes if you really wanted them. With signing you make yourself dependent on the manufacturer of the OS. The console argument was a hint that the application gained traction as a DRM utility, not for user security. Because signing here included properties of the medium the software was deployed on, so you couldn't just copy it to another CD/DVD.

ashtonkem 6y ago

Consoles haven’t been open for 30 years, but I can still run unsigned code on my Mac. They’re not a good argument for us actually sliding down a slippery slope. And writing drivers for hardware has often been impossible or effectively so due to poor documentation and/or signing. Do you not remember the era when most WiFi cards didn’t work with Linux, or when graphics cards required closed source binary blobs to even work? I get you don’t like it on principle, so maybe you shouldn’t buy a Mac, but the idea that we’re going down a slippery slope is very much [citation needed]

raxxorrax 6y ago
I remember the time and I could just fix the driver in some cases at least. And people did and provided solutions. Windows also introduced software signing for drivers and user software, so yes, prevalence does increase while no benefits are provided. What is the advantage of an nvidia binary blob for Linux if it is signed or not. Was downloading from a trusted source a problem? We had hashes if you really wanted them. With signing you make yourself dependent on the manufacturer of the OS. The console argument was a hint that the application gained traction as a DRM utility, not for user security. Because signing here included properties of the medium the software was deployed on, so you couldn't just copy it to another CD/DVD.