5 ms·

Please read RMS's original letter here: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/mac-osx-mistakes-and-malfeatures http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/mac-osx-mistakes-and-malfeatu

Please read RMS's original letter here: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/mac-osx-mistakes-and-malfeatures http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/mac-osx-mistakes-and-malfeature... and here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849789 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849789 I can't see a motivation for him to post a retraction for something he can't confirm in either regard, so I also assume that Apple has pursued some legal action. Apple does have complete control over the software on your system. Every time you do an update you give control to them, but this is no different than any other OS that is upgradable. The difference is that OSX users have no transparency into what they are doing, and no way to audit it. So why would they need a backdoor if you will sudo and hand them the keyboard?

gjm11 17y ago
I can't see a motivation for him to post a retraction for something he can't confirm in either regard: Honesty, perhaps?
- JeremyChase 17y ago
  Sure, that is possible. Lets imagine that he simply stopped talking about the back door. Is this something he is asked about a lot? If so, he would have to recant eventually, why not now? You are correct, and I shouldn't have assumed anything. However, I still believe legal action to be the likely cause.
rbanffy 17y ago
"but this is no different than any other OS that is upgradable" Except for the fact that in free and open-source you can examine the code that conducts the update. For instance, my iPod-to-TV cable stopped working when I update my iPod touch (http://www.dieblinkenlights.com/blog_en/i-really-want-to-like-apple http://www.dieblinkenlights.com/blog_en/i-really-want-to-lik...). Could I examine the update, I could rather easily change the part that broke perfectly functional hardware and reverse the change in functionality Apple imposed upon me.

gjm11 17y ago

I can't see a motivation for him to post a retraction for something he can't confirm in either regard: Honesty, perhaps?

JeremyChase 17y ago
Sure, that is possible. Lets imagine that he simply stopped talking about the back door. Is this something he is asked about a lot? If so, he would have to recant eventually, why not now? You are correct, and I shouldn't have assumed anything. However, I still believe legal action to be the likely cause.

rbanffy 17y ago

"but this is no different than any other OS that is upgradable" Except for the fact that in free and open-source you can examine the code that conducts the update. For instance, my iPod-to-TV cable stopped working when I update my iPod touch (http://www.dieblinkenlights.com/blog_en/i-really-want-to-like-apple http://www.dieblinkenlights.com/blog_en/i-really-want-to-lik...). Could I examine the update, I could rather easily change the part that broke perfectly functional hardware and reverse the change in functionality Apple imposed upon me.