5 ms·
It's app stores as the single gatekeeper to a platform that's bad. I think it's actually fine if there's an app store where you can get vetted apps that have so
by mcv 6y ago
It's app stores as the single gatekeeper to a platform that's bad. I think it's actually fine if there's an app store where you can get vetted apps that have some official stamp of approval from the store owner, but it's also important that that store doesn't have the monopoly to that platform. It should be possible for users to choose a different app store.
- waheoo 6y agoUgh. Why do we even need an app store exactly? Visit site. Click download app. Click install. This pattern has worked for 20 years. What changed? Nothing. Google and apple just decided it wanted a walled garden and ya'll said ooo shiny.
- mciancia 6y agoYou can still do that on android if you want. I still like to have an option of walled garden platform where everything is vetted so flashlight app wont dump every single thing that I have on the phone just because it can. That would be a problem if we would have no choice, but that is not the case.
- jhugo 6y agoSandboxing and permissioned APIs for accessing data is what prevents that, not the half-assed vetting that Google does.
- sideshowb 6y agoThough I share your sentiments, that pattern worked very well at infecting machines with malware for 20 years because the average user is a bad judge of which sites to trust to install software on their device. Then again, app stores haven't solved the malware problem, and neither have solutions like trusted publishers / signing executables / etc. I look forward to seeing a solution that isn't worst-of-both-worlds.
- spacemanmatt 6y agoI don't know there's a great solution to secure general purpose computing. Malware has been part of my life since 5.25" floppy disk era.
- throwaway316943 6y agoI remember installing software before app stores. Everyone was always afraid of malware but very few people I knew ever suffered from it. Most people used anti virus software, asked their friends which programs they recommended, or did some research of their own to figure out what was safe to download. All that was probably at least as effective as the “curation” that app stores provide. The problem is that now a lot of people implicitly trust apps from app stores and there is the added harm that there are now sanctioned forms of malware that serve ads, steal info and try to sell you exploitative in app purchases.
- jcpham2 6y agoThe problem is that code execution evolved to ransomware because cryptocurrency. If we’re being honest, some barriers were crossed and the threat evolved
- alpaca128 6y ago> code execution evolved to ransomware because cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency might have made it easier, but such scams are older than that. Just look at the whole range of tech support scams based on voucher codes.
- selfhoster11 6y agoA tech support scam can be unlocked by a competent technician for much less than the amount requested by the crooks. A ransomware attack with asymmetric crypto cannot be unlocked in a similar way, math simply won't let you (bar faulty ransomware that happens to reveal its key).
- lotsofpulp 6y ago