4 ms·

One could say that memory safety is exactly the kind of "sanding off" we need on the concept of the traditional coding paradigms that have governed the software

One could say that memory safety is exactly the kind of "sanding off" we need on the concept of the traditional coding paradigms that have governed the software industry since there was a software industry(which, conveniently, is something that got started in the 70's and came of age in the 80's). One long period of structural debt and organizational consolidation, most of it piled on the conceptual framework of Unix, C, and core Internet technologies. There's a shift in the cosmology of computing taking place now, where the base layers are getting reexamined. And now, a period of reinvestment in the bottom layers and signs of a diasporic divergence emerging. Movements that are ideologically different from yesteryear's FOSS, and a tightening of SV's grip on events that increasingly causes sand to pour through, new purposings of old tech and roads previously untaken. It's like Alan Kay put it: The future is the past AND the present.

greggman3 5y ago
Security and privacy are another big thing. In the 90s and 200Xs I installed pretty much anything as a native app and didn't worry about it as only "bad" people made viruses/trojans and legit companies had no incentive. That all changed with big data and marketing. Now, every native app company, and every library those native apps use, has an incentive to mine your machine for data and then use and or sell that data. And further, the vectors for exploits of various native apps have increased as well and the always connected nature of our devices has increased the incentives. Many people complain about MacOS's new security features. Me, I love them and I don't think they go far enough. Sure I want control of my machine. I don't want to secede control to Apple. But that to me is what MacOS (not iOS) is delivering (or attempting to deliver). Stop every app from doing anything without permission. Give me way to grant that permission if I really want. I wish Windows would do the same. I wish all Steam games were sandboxed. In other words, getting all that cool tech from the 80s to be secure and privacy respecting is a ton of work.

greggman3 5y ago

Security and privacy are another big thing. In the 90s and 200Xs I installed pretty much anything as a native app and didn't worry about it as only "bad" people made viruses/trojans and legit companies had no incentive. That all changed with big data and marketing. Now, every native app company, and every library those native apps use, has an incentive to mine your machine for data and then use and or sell that data. And further, the vectors for exploits of various native apps have increased as well and the always connected nature of our devices has increased the incentives. Many people complain about MacOS's new security features. Me, I love them and I don't think they go far enough. Sure I want control of my machine. I don't want to secede control to Apple. But that to me is what MacOS (not iOS) is delivering (or attempting to deliver). Stop every app from doing anything without permission. Give me way to grant that permission if I really want. I wish Windows would do the same. I wish all Steam games were sandboxed. In other words, getting all that cool tech from the 80s to be secure and privacy respecting is a ton of work.