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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • I think we’re on the same page? If an attacker wanted a keylogger they wouldn’t even need to go as far as a screen, there are plenty of other ways (like a 3rd party keyboard app) that would work just as well, if not better, on an iPhone.

    Hell, while we’re at it, using a phishing email to get you to enter a password in a fake site or using social engineering to reset your passwords is way more effective than reverse engineering and modding a camera/screen.

    There’s no reason why Apple should get to keep exclusive rights on repairs just to profit more on parts. 3rd party screens, cameras, face id modules, etc. aren’t going to suddenly make your phone less secure.





  • If you think keyloggers require software running on your physical keyboards you’re in for a rude awakening.

    Keyloggers are almost always at a pure software level and are conceptually simple to make. So simple that in fact, it’s the same thing as running a regular application with background shortcuts. The only thing that is different is that regular apps aren’t saving/recording anything, they’re just listening for you to press cmd+whatever.

    It takes maybe ~10-15 minutes to make a keylogger in Python that could run on any computer, mac, windows, or Linux. Maybe a little longer if you wanted to use a compiled language and properly hide it.

    Sorry to burst your bubble.

    • A software developer

  • No, you can’t, because that isn’t a good analogy. Those two situations are not at all the same, but I’ll humor you.

    The analogy you’re making is like saying only the company who makes doors is allowed to change the lock on your door, and they’re allowed to just stop offering the lock-changing service whenever they want. They also conveniently put a mechanism in so that whenever a third-party locksmith comes, your door falls apart. Your only option is to buy a new door, doorknob, frame, and hinge because your lock is worn out.


  • Odd examples to pick, Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok were both delayed and the first original Mario platformer for the switch came out in 2017 (Odyssey - if you think 3d Mario games aren’t platformers you haven’t played them). Nintendo has also been releasing tons of other games as well so it’s not like they’ve been doing nothing.

    Also, to be fair, When you have a platform with 10 times the total sales (Wii U sold ~14m, the switch is at ~130m right now) it makes sense to port over the good games from the console no one owned. Mario Kart 8 deluxe, a game originally from the Wii U, has sold ~55m copies, which is about 4 times what the entire Wii U console sold. There’s a reason they kept doing it, and it’s because most of the Wii U titles were good games that people will enjoy which released on a dead platform.

    If you’re going to criticize Nintendo, criticize actually valid things like the scummy price increases on the ports (not just the ports’ existence), the poor online system that costs up to $50 per year per account, and a legal team who goes after anyone doing anything that isn’t directly playing the game. To be clear, a Microsoft buyout probably wouldn’t change any of those things because it’s making them money. Look no further than American companies like Disney largely using the same strategies Nintendo does. Microsoft is no different.



  • Depending on something isn’t necessarily tied to how many alternatives there are.

    For example: I use a heavily configured qtile setup on my desktop. I’m depending on that setup working every time I turn my computer on. Sure, I could switch to i3 or sway or Hyprland, but that would take a considerable amount of time and effort. In this case, I’m depending on qtile working for me, so I can get work done instead of messing with a bunch of config files. The only time this wouldn’t happen is when one solution can be a completely (or almost completely) drop-in replacement for the other, e.g. how sway claims to be with i3.

    This is especially true with tiling window managers, where people spend many hours configuring setups to behave how they want. Moving to a different alternative isn’t exactly simple.

    To your point about FOSS: chrome and android may not be FOSS, but as much as I dislike it AOSP and Chromium definitely are, even if Google controls the repos for both. Your definition is a slippery slope because by that definition software like Ubuntu, Manjaro, etc. also aren’t FOSS because the repos are controlled by a single company.

    To your last point: telling someone else they shouldn’t use a piece of code for the same reason you don’t is also perfectly valid. It’s not like it’s an order, they don’t have to follow it. People can choose to agree or disagree with you if they want. Ultimately, the decision to install software in Linux lies with the user, and the most any online opinion can do is give a persuading or dissuading argument. Just like I could say, “don’t use this software, it’s built on some old deprecated library that will probably break in a month”, I could also say “don’t use this software, the main dev is a bad person because xyz…” and it would still be up to the user to make a decision. If you don’t mind disagreeing with the author of software you use, that’s fine, but not everyone is like that, and that’s also fine.


  • The developer doesn’t owe us anything, but if they’re creating an online community like Discord there are inherent responsibilities that come with that. If they don’t want to moderate, then they shouldn’t create a Discord/Matrix/Whatever server.

    Just like how even if the developer doesn’t owe us anything, that doesn’t mean it’s fine for them to push malware as an update to their previously fine code after they’ve established trust.


  • You’re still giving them a platform by installing their code though?

    If you use software coming from someone you inherently disagree with, especially a desktop environment/compositor, you depend on that person for your computer’s day-to-day functionality. Isn’t one of the key points of the FOSS community that we disagree with large controlling companies like Google and Microsoft? That, even when they make FOSS contributions, it should be taken with a huge grain of salt?

    Imo, this is the exact same thing. Even if it’s good software, not wanting to rely on code from someone you don’t agree with or trust (even if those concerns are unrelated to the given codebase) is completely reasonable and valid