5 ms·

> It's a "vendor lock-in" ecosystem that's worse than the Windows lock-in of yesteryear IMO. For regular companies, if they want to shoot themselves in the foo

by megous 6y ago

> It's a "vendor lock-in" ecosystem that's worse than the Windows lock-in of yesteryear IMO. For regular companies, if they want to shoot themselves in the foot by not being on the web, they're welcome. It's not such a huge issue as it would be with government for example. Also "any chance of any form of adoption" is a bit overstatment. I still use a dumbphone, and if I migrated to pinephone, lack of the kind of apps you mention would certainly not concern me. Even then, many apps have web alternatives here, or alternative GPLed clients for Linux (that includes whatsapp, apparently), that can be made native on pinephone.

arp242 6y ago
"Not being on the web" doesn't seem like a huge footgun. There are probably more people with a mobile phone and no traditional computer than the other way around, especially if you go outside of the US and Europe. Revolut, Grab, Gojek, Tinder, WhatsApp, and many more are all successful that offer a mobile-first solution, with either no web/desktop client or just as a an additional client (usually with fewer features, and/or still requiring access to a smartphone). > Also "any chance of any form of adoption" is a bit overstatment. I still use a dumbphone Of course it's possible; but depending on what your interests in life are you will pay a price, and in practice for the vast majority of people the price is too large to use a non-Android/iOS compatible device. > many apps have web alternatives here, or alternative GPLed clients for Linux (that includes whatsapp, apparently), that can be made native on pinephone. Unless they somehow hacked the encryption, you're still going to need a connection to the phone's WhatsApp client.
- Vrondi 6y ago
  If you're using Whatsapp, you've got zero interest in privacy anyhow, and so you're never going to consider these issues in the first place.
  - mdoms 6y ago
    Well first of all that's just total BS, but secondly this thread isn't even about privacy. None of this is. In fact your comment is the very first mention of that word in this thread.
- necovek 6y ago
  > Unless they somehow hacked the encryption, you're still going to need a connection to the phone's WhatsApp client. Apologies if I sound a bit naive, but what would be there to "hack"? WhatsApp clients are available for many platforms, whatever encryption they might be using can easily be figured out by decompiling the code, and if they are using a key on the client side to do any encryption, that key is available for extraction from the distributed client too. Basically, my question is what can a closed source downloadable client do to protect the encryption it uses to connect to a public network?
  - arp242 6y ago
    Yes, technically I'm sure there are ways around it if you try hard enough. No one does that though AFAIK.

by megous 6y ago

arp242 6y ago

"Not being on the web" doesn't seem like a huge footgun. There are probably more people with a mobile phone and no traditional computer than the other way around, especially if you go outside of the US and Europe. Revolut, Grab, Gojek, Tinder, WhatsApp, and many more are all successful that offer a mobile-first solution, with either no web/desktop client or just as a an additional client (usually with fewer features, and/or still requiring access to a smartphone). > Also "any chance of any form of adoption" is a bit overstatment. I still use a dumbphone Of course it's possible; but depending on what your interests in life are you will pay a price, and in practice for the vast majority of people the price is too large to use a non-Android/iOS compatible device. > many apps have web alternatives here, or alternative GPLed clients for Linux (that includes whatsapp, apparently), that can be made native on pinephone. Unless they somehow hacked the encryption, you're still going to need a connection to the phone's WhatsApp client.

Vrondi 6y ago
If you're using Whatsapp, you've got zero interest in privacy anyhow, and so you're never going to consider these issues in the first place.
- mdoms 6y ago
  Well first of all that's just total BS, but secondly this thread isn't even about privacy. None of this is. In fact your comment is the very first mention of that word in this thread.
necovek 6y ago
> Unless they somehow hacked the encryption, you're still going to need a connection to the phone's WhatsApp client. Apologies if I sound a bit naive, but what would be there to "hack"? WhatsApp clients are available for many platforms, whatever encryption they might be using can easily be figured out by decompiling the code, and if they are using a key on the client side to do any encryption, that key is available for extraction from the distributed client too. Basically, my question is what can a closed source downloadable client do to protect the encryption it uses to connect to a public network?
- arp242 6y ago
  Yes, technically I'm sure there are ways around it if you try hard enough. No one does that though AFAIK.