How Proprietary Software Lets Companies Cheat (locusmag.com) 228
"Proprietary software makes it possible to design products to cheat ordinary users..." writes Richard Stallman -- linking to a new essay by Cory Doctorow:
Carriers adapted custom versions of Android to lock customers to their networks with shovelware apps that couldn't be removed from the home-screen and app store lock-in that forced customers to buy apps through their phone company. What began with printers and spread to phones is coming to everything: this kind of technology has proliferated to smart thermostats (no apps that let you turn your AC cooler when the power company dials it up a couple degrees), tractors (no buying your parts from third-party companies), cars (no taking your GM to an independent mechanic), and many categories besides.
All these forms of cheating treat the owner of the device as an enemy of the company that made or sold it, to be thwarted, tricked, or forced into conducting their affairs in the best interest of the company's shareholders. To do this, they run programs and processes that attempt to hide themselves and their nature from their owners, and proxies for their owners (like reviewers and researchers). Increasingly, cheating devices behave differently depending on who is looking at them. When they believe themselves to be under close scrutiny, their behavior reverts to a more respectable, less egregious standard. This is a shocking and ghastly turn of affairs, one that takes us back to the dark ages.
All these forms of cheating treat the owner of the device as an enemy of the company that made or sold it, to be thwarted, tricked, or forced into conducting their affairs in the best interest of the company's shareholders. To do this, they run programs and processes that attempt to hide themselves and their nature from their owners, and proxies for their owners (like reviewers and researchers). Increasingly, cheating devices behave differently depending on who is looking at them. When they believe themselves to be under close scrutiny, their behavior reverts to a more respectable, less egregious standard. This is a shocking and ghastly turn of affairs, one that takes us back to the dark ages.
Shovelware sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
I've love to see a class action suit filed that would force Facebook, Groupon, Snapchat, and dozens of other apps I'll never use explain why they are taking up precious and expensive space in my phone.
Hopefully once that hurdle is cleared it will create a precedence for the other abuses.
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Re:Shovelware sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not just Android. Even with PC's and Windows, many pieces of hardware now require a "cloud account". These included security web cameras with internet connection. In order to use the PC and Android application, you need a cloud account. Even to control the camera from a Smartphone. These days virtual machine applications require internet access to "keep up to date".
I bought a telephone handset for my mobile ... and of course it requires cloud services because it needs voice recognition in order to activate smartphone applications. It's getting ridiculous.
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Many security cameras require a cloud account for a valid reason... Because of NAT, how else are you going to view your cameras from outside of your home network?
The average slashdot reader may be capable of setting up a VPN, but most people aren't, and having cheaply designed devices accessible on internet-routable ips is dangerous too if you dont know what you're doing.
The devices i saw at least made the cloud account optional, you could still access them standalone over a VPN... I've configured such a VP
Re:Shovelware sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
Many security cameras require a cloud account for a valid reason...
That's not a valid reason. It would be a valid reason to provide the option, but not to make it mandatory.
Personally, I simply refuse to buy anything that requires an account anywhere in order to function.
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Yes, I would. Although, in practice, there is no such surcharge.
If so, why didn't you just buy a more expensive camera that does what you want? You can't but the cheapest shit and then get mad that it's lacking features, that's unreasonable
I think you may be confusing me with someone else. I haven't bought any cameras that require cloud connectivity.
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nVidia has started this crap as well. Last time I wanted to upgrade my gfx card drivers it insisted on having an account.
Re:Shovelware sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
To get rid of it, you gotta root the phone. To get rid of the Google apps (which are linked to the Google Play Store), you have to root the phone and install a vanilla version of Android compiled straight from Google's open source, and don't install the Google Apps bundle. As you probably guessed though, this means you give up access to the Google Play Store and any apps which you may have purchased through it.
My suggestion would be to make a law where the manufacturer or reseller (carrier) must provide warranty service for as long as software not essential to the device's operation remains on it. So if they want to get paid to put Facebook on the phone and make it impossible to delete forever, then they need to provide warranty service for the phone forever. Basically if they want to behave as if they still partially own the phone, then they need to continue to provide warranty service for it.
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The last couple of versions of Android let you disable the baked-in apps to a greater or lesser degree. They still waste some space, but once disabled and their functionality replaced they don't do much harm, and you get a cheaper phone.
Having said that, I prefer to buy phones without bloatware these days, rather than get one on contract. And in the UK, even phones on contract can be vanilla unlocked models if you just avoid going to the network directly.
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So in a way you're benefiting from it via a lower phone price.
This is utter BS.
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with similar specs
Hahahahahahahahahahahahah
Hahahahahahahahahahahahah
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And, by your own admission, if I replace the OS I could lose something important, like the ability to make phone calls.
You, sir, are a fucking asshole and can kindly fuck the fuck off.
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Snotnose challenged:
Tell me a phone that doesn't have Facebook pre-installed, and you can't delete it.
Well, there's the Nexus 6, for instance. Mine - which I bought new - didn't come with Facebook pre-installed. And it still doesn't have it, because Mark Zuckerberg's data-stalking machine can fuck ALL the way off, as far as I'm concerned.
(Note that I do use FB on my desktop machine - but I use NoScript's ABE to disable facebook.com and facebook.net scripts from running anywhere else but FB itself. Nor do I permit 3rd-party cookies. And I use Better Privacy to dispose of data BLOBs. I nev
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My Samsung A5 (2016) did not have Facebook preinstalled... until a Samsung OS "Security Update" came a year ago and said "Facebook application has been installed" - without me being able or allowed to deny that.
Now Facebook is auto-updating by itself, separately from the normal Google App Store updates. I fucking hate that.
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Tell me a phone that doesn't have Facebook pre-installed, and you can't delete it. And, by your own admission, if I replace the OS I could lose something important, like the ability to make phone calls. You, sir, are a fucking asshole and can kindly fuck the fuck off.
My phone came with its app installed but let me delete it. But I have a windows phone so undeletable apps are the least of my problems.
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It's never been preinstalled on any phone I've had in the past 10 years: iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, Moto X, Moto G, Asus Zenfone 2, Moto Z Play. The first three were sold carrier-locked to AT&T; the last three were sold unlocked.
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Tell me a phone that doesn't have Facebook pre-installed, and you can't delete it.
Most modern Android phones? Even if the app is in the firmware it can be disabled. Meaning all local data is removed, the app cannot run, and it won't show on your launcher.
if I replace the OS I could lose something important, like the ability to make phone calls.
So let me get this straight. You want the manufacturer to guarantee their hardware will work if you flash arbitrary software on it? And you want them to support arbitrary 3rd party OS installs? Sounds reasonable.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Time for you to look at the Motorola offerings.
Unlocked, generic Android phones.
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OK, now you just have to find me an iPhone without iOS.
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you're likely to have removed some critical proprietary software pieces that make the hardware work though.
In other words, you really can't practically wipe the phone and install a fresh version. You can only get rid of the shovelware in the sense that you can just toss the phone in a tree chipper.
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You can certainly wipe the phone and install a fresh version of Android, you're likely to have removed some critical proprietary software pieces that make the hardware work though.
I've been doing this for years and have never run into this problem. But then, when I'm shopping for a new phone, the first thing I do is check to make sure that others have been able to replace the OS without trouble. If not, then I don't buy that phone.
Yep, he's right. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Is there really no phone you can buy to avoid this? Just because somebody sells something doesn't mean you have to buy it, there are plenty of smartphones out there that you can wipe the entire OS and install a replacement like Replicant or Lineage. These essays always make it sound like the world is ending just because there is a company out there selling something that you don't like.
Also what specifically are these "shovelware apps" that "lock customers to their networks"? I certainly have seen some pre-
Re:Yep, he's right. (Score:5, Insightful)
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99% of the people who buy phones are not technically savvy enough to even understand that there is a problem, never mind find the phones that solve it
So the first question is defining the problem: what specifically are these "shovelware apps" that "lock customers to their networks"? [slashdot.org]
The second question is how can you go about avoiding that problem. You say 99% of people don't even understand that there is a problem, maybe there actually isn't a significant problem at all. Certainly if carriers shipped devices with apps that you were forced to use that you then had to put your data in and could not extract it out when you wanted to switch to another devic
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I assure you that when you have little internal storage and can't get rid of dropbox, Uber, and other apps, it is a problem. You may not be forced to use them, but you are forced to let them eat up your valuable available storage. This problem is real, and I have had to deal with it.
So the whole "problem" here has been mischaracterised and it's just a simple matter of needing more storage space. Looks like there's lots of solutions [androidcentral.com] or buy a phone that is supported by LineageOS.
No... you do not understand the problem. (Score:2)
The handset is powered by Qualcomm's beastly Snapdragon 820 SoC, and offers 4GB of RAM along with 32GB storage.
How do you expand that built in 32 GB storage? Would a hammer be enough or does one need powertools or corrosive chemicals?
Same goes for that 4GB of RAM, choked with processes and services and various crap you simply don't want to be running in the background, trying to be "smart" for you until you're barely managing not to throw the phone at the wall.
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How do you expand that built in 32 GB storage? Would a hammer be enough or does one need powertools or corrosive chemicals?
It's called an SD-Card slot, an SD card is a memory card that allows you to expand the phone's available storage. Quite some time ago Android added the ability for applications to be installed on SD cards as well. Buying a phone that gives you this option of adding storage (or even better one that is supported by alternative OS distributions) is a way of "voting with your wallet". There is a vibrant and active community [lineageos.org] working to solve exactly the problem you are complaining about so support them by helpin
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That's still not a good enough solution, because until only the most recent versions of android, the sd card was mounted as a separate volume and managing apps on that volume was damned near impossible.
If all you do on your phone is use the base functionality and listen to music, videos, etc, then you're fine. But anyone who wants to install various applications is still going to be hosed. Especially when something like facebooks apps take up almost an entire gigabyte all on their own.
Now that the most re
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One thing to do would be to require phone capacities be advertised based on the space that's actually available for user storage. Ie what's left after the OS and any mandatory crapware has been installed. That would allow users to easily identify that there is a downside to the bundled crapware and hence the reason for the lower price.
Re:Yep, he's right. (Score:5, Informative)
He's not just focussing on phones: He's talking about all kinds of new tech that is Internet-enabled or surreptitiously recording your private information and not fully controlled by the consumers.
He's talking about thermostats provided by your power utility that are controlled remotely by that utility to reduce your power consumption when they feel like it.
He's talking about vendors who are locking the owners into expensive service contracts or buying parts and supplies at forced inflated prices, using CFAA and DMCA to keep users from doing their own mainternance.
All of these problems occur because of the way that consumers and citizens are prevented from having full control over the devices we purchase: With the business-slanted contracts and laws that prevent us from knowing what the software is doing and what our devices are surreptitiously reporting back to businesses and governments.
Richard Stallman has been warning about these problems for many years.
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He's not just focussing on phones: He's talking about all kinds of new tech that is Internet-enabled or surreptitiously recording your private information and not fully controlled by the consumers.
Yes and each thing is a different case, there isn't one solution that solves all problems. Which is why I was asking about that one case.
He's talking about thermostats provided by your power utility that are controlled remotely by that utility to reduce your power consumption when they feel like it.
And you can use a different thermostat, even an open source smart one [hestiapi.com] or even build one [particle.io]. The same goes for the router your ISP gives you, you very often get much better performance with a different one.
All of these problems occur because of the way that consumers and citizens are prevented from having full control over the devices we purchase
And can be solved by exercising your right to choose what you buy.
With the business-slanted contracts and laws that prevent us from knowing what the software is doing and what our devices are surreptitiously reporting back to businesses and governments.
There's no law preventing distribution and supply of FOSS devices, indeed we've seen that in many industrie
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And look at how increasingly larger percentages of new routers do not allow you to load any other firmware.
But there are plenty that do and in the absence of those you can even build your own using a PC thanks to FOSS.
Re:Yep, he's right. (Score:4, Informative)
Your argument is AKA the hermit in the cave. You forget that in industry after industry, product after product, less and less acceptable alternatives exist. The solution is rapidly going the way of the dodo and you stand there fiddling.
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The solution is rapidly going the way of the dodo and you stand there fiddling.
The reason this is happening is because people are buying them anyway. Encouraging people to buy reasonable products instead is one way of remaining free.
Also, reasonable alternatives will always exist -- that market will always have companies servicing it. The only question is how expensive they are.
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Really? There is not one single new car on the market now that doesn't have a propriety computer control system. Do you have a tutorial on plugging a PC into your car engine and installing this fantastical OS to control your car?
I'm sure there are a bajillion farmers who would LOVE to get a hold of your technique so that they can repair their farm equipment. I suppose your recommendation would be to go back to horse and buggy, where the farmer slowly gets destroyed in the marketplace because he can't com
Re: Yep, he's right. (Score:3)
> He's not just focussing on phones
> He's talking about thermostats
> He's talking about vendors
Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturer of dairy products.
Re: Yep, he's right. (Score:2)
Woohoo, somebody got the reference.
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Sounds like a great source for below market cost LEDs. Are they better than 1 watt whites?
Sure stupid people are stupid. Do you have a deeper point or a possible solution? Just want to ban all 'snake oil'?
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You can install Lineage, but then you can't pay with your phone, and certain games assume you cheat.
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certain games assume you cheat.
It seems like every time alternatives to abusive products are brought up, someone say "but.. but.. games!"
Of all the corrosive effects games companies are having in the tech world, this attitude has to be one of the most obnoxious and insidious. Most of the other issues can be avoided by not playing games from abusive companies.
This one, however, is actually decreasing the chances of shaking off this horrible trend for everybody, not just gamers.
Fuck games.
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Is there really no phone you can buy to avoid this?
Are your willing to have software developers/vendors laugh in your face when you actually want their software to run (or run without issues) on your phone? If the answer is yes, then I'm sure you can find options. If the answer is no, then you're SOL.
Unfortunately, so much we do on mobile these days is absolutely dependent on proprietary applications and protocols, which means that you can't really have a full experience without depending on those outside the F/OSS community.
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Are your willing to have software developers/vendors laugh in your face when you actually want their software to run (or run without issues) on your phone?
What specifically? Is there really so much critical software that won't run on say LineageOS?
Unfortunately, so much we do on mobile these days is absolutely dependent on proprietary applications and protocols, which means that you can't really have a full experience without depending on those outside the F/OSS community.
So the answer is to pour effort into developing those missing pieces rather than whine that the status quo isn't what you want.
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Unfortunately, so much we do on mobile these days is absolutely dependent on proprietary applications and protocols, which means that you can't really have a full experience without depending on those outside the F/OSS community.
Like what, outside of some games?
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** no GPS navigation
** no web browsing
** no camera worth a damn
** no texting (I don't do 10-key texting)
** no wifi calling
** no visual voicemail
** no storing an entire music library and using it as an ipod
** no genuinely useful apps like my hiking GPS app or calculator app
** good at actual phone calls, but this is one of the *least common* things I still do on a phone!
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If you're actually serious, then you're a fucking idiot to think I want to haul around a camera and a laptop everywhere I go, and that I'm somehow going to get a laptop to actually work as a GPS navigator in my car.
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Standalone GPS, to my knowledge, doesn't get traffic updates and route you around traffic jams. How would it, unless it has its own cellular modem, which you'd have to spend extra money on for data service? Standalone GPS also doesn't help me find businesses. Quick: I want to see all the Italian restaurants near me and pick one to go to. A Garmin isn't going to be much help here. Maybe it'll have some large businesses pre-programmed, like the GPS in my car (which also doesn't have traffic updates), and
But /. only loves business-speak (Score:5, Insightful)
For years Eben Moglen has been pointing out "Stallman was right" in his talks. Moglen regularly cites how Stallman got there years before the corporate-minded press (and thus repeater sites like /. don't promote that point of view). It's very much the problem we see with the open source advocacy for nonfree software (or, put differently, the open source enthusiasts' unwillingness to stand by their pitched development methodology). I understand it rankles to read someone pointing out that free software and open source aren't the same, but when it comes to endorsing proprietary software they certainly are not and this endorsement ought not be pushed aside. Red Hat has a cozy relationship with Microsoft [slashdot.org] which includes bundling .NET software despite patent claims that render such software nonfree [digitalcitizen.info] particularly if one wants to do something with the software they can do with free software—adding covered code to another project.
You still see people here (even on this topic) posting something that demonstrates an unfounded belief they have more control over their nonfree OS-running computer than they have. "At least on PCs I could figure out what was crap, and delete it.", for example. Taking "PC" not to mean "personal computer" but computer running Microsoft Windows, there are plenty of examples of programs that either don't include working uninstallers or installers that purposefully leave something behind which can't be easily uninstalled (Sony's rootkit which also interfered with CD ripping, for example).
/.'s user-driven censorship scheme effectively increases the odds that freedom-talk goes unseen. If you want to see your post never get moderated up (and thus be less likely to show up for most /. readers using default settings), try pointing to any of the GNU Project's malware pages [gnu.org]. These pages are highly informative lists which are helpfully divided into useful subcategories. They all explain how nonfree or proprietary software most computer users run deserve the alternative name "user-subjugating" and point to stories written by others, naming names and leaving no doubt as to their authenticity. /. wants clicks and like any click/like-oriented publication, adherence to established corporate norms is the heart of the effort. Stories like this come along once in a while but clearly the mainstay of tech press is convincing people to argue over minor technicalities while they narrow the allowable debate to which proprietary programs shall run on one's system.
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Please do cite examples to back up your claims. Stallman doesn't talk about "closed source" because that's a reference to open source, a group founded on rejecting the ethics-based free software movement he founded over a decade before open source began. In fact, Stallman has been known to point out why open source misses the point of free software [gnu.org] and open source is a right-wing reactionary counter to free software probably because open source proponents are ready to drop their development methodology if a
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Help teach software freedom instead. (Score:2)
People should be trained in what software freedom means and why it matters. Instead they're trained in evaluating all options on the basis of price (and misstating the price, at that, because no price is placed on their privacy or their other rights), convenience (without regard to other values), and on fashion (functionally, there's very little that separates the older button-oriented look & feel UI from the modern swiping and OpenGL-effects-laden U
Standard Operating Procedure (Score:2)
Corporations do not have customers, they have marks.
I've seen worse. . . . (Score:2)
. . . there are cell providers who will sell you a cheap phone from a generation or two back, but have the image set so you CAN'T re-flash it with a generic image. . . .
Hint: if it's last-year's phone and offers "free" cell and net. . .steer far away. . .
The crapware and mandatory upsells after your tiny allotment of "free" minutes and data are not worth the (alleged) savings. . .
This works great...right up until it doesn't (Score:3)
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They started selling services and support of custom hardware.
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Gaslighting (Score:2)
Great gaslighting tool!
Dieselgate the world. (Score:2)
When they believe themselves to be under close scrutiny, their behavior reverts to a more respectable, less egregious standard.
Doesn't that sound familiar?
It's Dieselgate writ small -- and this time around, there is no government agency tracking this sort of shit. That's why I rather suspect it will fail to make the radar of lawmakers until something particularly egregious happens. It probably will happen though.
Making a plan now and waiting until it's politically expedient to trot it out is better than having to make up policy on the fly, although it also allows greater chances of nasty poison pills getting embedded in it.
Price of pointless demand (Score:2, Insightful)
You don't own the software. Worse, you agree the provider/manufacturer of the device, can change the software at any time.
Who do I complain to when a Samsung firmware update installs Facebook? Software isn't held to the 'built to purpose' responsibility that hardware is. But again, you didn't buy the software.
How many printer reviews mentioned the RRP and expected output of the required printer cartridges? How many phone reviews and retailers list the crap-ware installed by the provider/manufacturer?
Thi
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You don't own the software. Worse, you agree the provider/manufacturer of the device, can change the software at any time.
Need to distinguish carrier-lockin from manufacturer lock-in - they are different.
If it is a phone with a "Carriers adapted custom versions of Android" then you don't actually own the _device_ either - you are renting it until it is paid off on contract and many people never even do that because they get a carrier-provided "upgrade" and carry on renting. If you _buy_ your phones sim-free _then_ you _own_ the device, and guess what - no carrier-special garbage on it, no carrier lock-in, no carrier-special a
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you agree the provider/manufacturer of the device, can change the software at any time.
I most certainly do not, and I take active measures to make sure this doesn't happen.
Co-inky-dinks (Score:5, Insightful)
netflix can drop the rooted phones block (Score:2)
netflix can drop the rooted phones block or google can enforce some rules / have dev mode be able to do more.
i want smartphone that is 100% open source (Score:3)
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You could get most of that, but the modem will always be the problem. Especially in the US, networks are very picky about what they let connect. To get certified is expensive, and if you tell them that it's an open platform that lets people run their own arbitrary code they are going to deny you.
Cellular networks are a shared resource, and only work if every device on the network behaves. If anyone could go to xdadevelopers and download a hacked modem.bin that grabs all the bandwidth and tags it data with t
Stallman forgets about support (Score:4, Insightful)
In RMS' world, end-users are honest and can support themselves.
In real life end-users lie, cheat, and do stuff to equipment then say to support "I have no idea why it doesn't work, you need to replace this POS."
Unlike RMS, companies live in the Real World, where incompetent people do dumb things then complain when you can't fix it.
Put RMS on level 1 support and see what he thinks afterwards.
Re:Stallman forgets about support (Score:5, Insightful)
Or just design your product so that it doesn't soft-brick when the user screws up, and make the factory reset process easy. As long as you can do that any other warranty issues will be judged by if there is physical damage or not.
The reason companies do this shit has nothing to do with support. It's all about retaining control of the product after sale, turning a purchase into a licence agreement that benefits them and opens up additional customer farming opportunities.
Holy hubris, Batman! (Score:2)
This is a shocking and ghastly turn of affairs, one that takes us back to the dark ages. /quote
Well, guess I missed the news about the Black Death being back in town...last I looked we still had aircon and running water too.
A fool and his money... (Score:2)
For the *most* part I am always a bit surprised about the complaints. I mean it is like buying a shovel, that is designed to have spikes on the handle, for the only discernible reason being so that you also have to buy their special gloves in order to use it... When said persons are questioned on if they think that was a good idea, inevitably the response is, "Ya but it is a really GOOD shovel". But is it?
This is of course predicated on the fact that there are many other shovels laying around without spikes
Almost too complex (Score:2)
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Shit will continue to happen as long as you keep categorizing stuff into "left-wing vs right-wing" boxes.
Forget politics, look at what's happening and think for yourself, not for some political group that DOES NOT have your best interests at heart.
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Damn, and I thought Macs were expensive!
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plague
Check. http://www.npr.org/sections/go... [npr.org]
public hangings
Check. Hangings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Executions more broadly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
horse shit in the streets
http://www.historic-uk.com/His... [historic-uk.com]
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I loved "Walkaway".
Fascinating book about a future with unlimited free energy and bots to make anything you need for free but most people were trapped into thinking that they needed useless jobs and had to pay "the man" for stuff.
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Actually, he is referring to alchemists and demons.
If you RTFA, you'll understand his point.
Here's part of it:
"Increasingly, cheating devices behave differently depending on who is looking at them. When they believe themselves to be under close scrutiny, their behavior reverts to a more respectable, less egregious standard.
This is a shocking and ghastly turn of affairs, one that takes us back to the dark ages. Before the Englightenment, before the scientific method and its peer review, science was done by a
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re:More Doctrow Drek (Score:5, Insightful)
Um. Thermostats controlled by the utility are optional. You can go your own way if you want. The reason they are good is not that they are cheating, but rather than it's to everybody's benefit not to overload the grid: if you overload it, it goes down, and then everybody loses. It's called cooperation. This is not what Stallman and Doctorow are talking about. Open source software in those devices would be great, and indeed there are some pretty nice open source home energy control systems available today.
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Um. Thermostats controlled by the utility are optional. You can go your own way if you want. The reason they are good is not that they are cheating, but rather than it's to everybody's benefit not to overload the grid: if you overload it, it goes down, and then everybody loses. It's called cooperation. This is not what Stallman and Doctorow are talking about. Open source software in those devices would be great, and indeed there are some pretty nice open source home energy control systems available today.
It is true that keeping the grid up is important. But where I live, that isn't a problem. We don't get black outs unless a storm rolls though, we don't get brown outs. This may change in the future but isn't happening now. Utility controlled thermostats are currently a way for the energy company to save millions while the consumers save a couple dollars each.
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I'd rather accept a thermostat that does what it wants without my control if I knew I was going to get a grid that would actually stay working just because a bunch of people fancied a cup of tea at around the same time.
I get the notion of co-operation, but it seems on this point the customers all have to co-operate with the provider so that the provider doesn't have to do any cooperating of its own.
Re: More Doctrow Drek (Score:5, Informative)
What happens if cooperation is necessary for sustainability, but people don't cooperate and control the thermostats themselves? Who then should have the final say?
Money works. Where I used to live there was a discount on power bills if you agreed to have a smart switch on your A/C. I never noticed any difference in temperature, and I paid less. I benefitted from the arrangement and so did the utility.
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The basic idea is a good one. If you can stagger HVAC units coming on by even a few seconds it can massively reduce the peak loads. That's good for everyone.
The problem is that the system is proprietary. I'd have no issue connecting my AC unit to wifi so it can use an open protocol to talk to the power company and negotiate when to turn on. What I don't want is some black box connected to my system that I have no control over and no idea what it is doing.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
With there being significant pressure to increase unstable power generation methods like solar and wind, it is a good thing to be able to control the load somewhat on demand. Heating and AC are good candidates for this.
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To infinity and beyond?
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What you're rebelling against here, Doctrow and Stallman, isn't evil fat cat corporationy people. You're arguing against central government control and planning dictating winners and losers with an insane need for data collection to make sure everyone is behaving.
That's a distinction without a difference. The major corporations pretty much are the government in the US, and that trend has been accelerating.
it's a systemic issue worldwide.
I agree.
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Sufficiently difficult-to-maintain open source software is indistinguishable from proprietary.
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True. Open source is not, and never has been, a panacea. It's just better than the alternatives.
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Absolutely!
Because, you know what? its actually IMPOSSIBLE to buy a phone thats not from a carrier, IMPOSSIBLE I say!
Oh, wait a minute, they are everywhere, and there is actually no need to buy a carrier phone in the first place.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
THIS!!! Absolutely THIS!!! I'd have a lot more respect for him had he and his FSF actually built a total GNU based system, complete w/ (say) Replicant, gnu, gnustep or gnome, gnu Network, gnu Social, and all the other good stuff listed in the GNU page. Create a package, then create a tablet/phone/netbook that can work these, price it something that would cover both the costs as well as the FSF union, and then market it. If it's a phone, it can use SIMs from anybody, except the legacy CDMA guys, it can u
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Building a phone is not the mission of the FSF, the FSF's concern is about the wider politics of software users and software distribution. The FSF are happy to partner with projects that have the goal of promoting user freedom through phone software and phone hardware. Anybody is free to run such a project, it's just that there isn't any investment capital to do such a thing within the existing FSF associated projects.
The preaching is important because without it, nobody will demand for a change in the stat
Re: (Score:2)
If a theater critic can find nothing but flaws in every play, then yeah, it's worth a shot. Or else, just stop watching them, and find another line of work. It's one thing for a critic to like some things and dislike others, but that's not what Stallman does. As an example, look at his criticism of all Linux distros that have any popular following: the only ones he endorses are fringe ones like gNewSense, Trisquel and so on.
Stallman would have us all live like the Amish, while he himself plays in a tim
Re: (Score:2)
The issue is not that he's right about something, but that he criticizes everything, w/o ever having a viable alternative. It's like people who rant that 'politics suck' but refuse to support people they most agree w/ b'cos 'they have no chance of winning'. He doesn't have to start a company or anything himself: he can put together a concept, get together w/ any startup and agree w/ them on a marketing plan that helps that company produce something that satisfies all his requirements while at the same tim
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All else being equal, a free system would be superior because it wouldn't have the additional overhead of DRM and other such crap.
The difference is that there isn't so much investment behind the free options, because companies see more profit to be made by locking their customers in and squeezing them than by offering them a superior product.
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A free market is an unattainable dream, just like true communism or true freedom.
If people have true freedom then inevitably some will abuse that freedom in order to subjugate others for their own ends.
The purpose of government, and indeed of the GPL is to impose some restrictions in order to ensure a fair system where everyone is guaranteed the same level of freedom. Governments for instance typically don't allow you to go around killing or enslaving people, because in doing so you would be taking away the