Diseased Open Source Software Community - it's about ethics in Code of Conducts

[mentally retarded user]

How Russian kernel maintainers interfered in the 2024 election

 

[AnOminous]

I'm aware that sounds bleak but it is what it is.

That's a lot of words not to convince me that Russians are less trustworthy than troons. Sorry, still going with the Russians.

 

[Cedric_Eff]

That's a lot of words not to convince me that Russians are less trustworthy than troons. Sorry, still going with the Russians.

Both are crazy in their own way.

Now the Chinese on the other hand…

 

[Cedric_Eff]

Apple is slowly making sideloading harder on MacOS. The only workarounds are either to manually add each app in Security or to disable "System Integrity Protection" in the terminal.

The costs of verification are too high for a lot of hobbyists who just want to put their apps out there, and I can't imagine it being fun to be a developer who has to jump through hoops each time they want to test their programs. This also will keep scaring a lot of developers from writing for macOS.

I'm sure Apple would remove sideloading entirely if they could.

Remember when sideloading was just called installing a piece of software on your computer? Pepperidge Farm remembers!

I feel like Apple is doing that to make their platform look less like PC. Basically an walled garden where what they deem the cream of the crop can only exist.

 

[Looking Glass]

The only workarounds are either to manually add each app in Security or to disable "System Integrity Protection" in the terminal.

Thats even more annoying than the smartscreen/antivirus signing scam on windows. Don't they also require a review process to sign your binary, meaning they can deny it and make you wait an indeterminate amount of time?

I'm sure Apple would remove sideloading entirely if they could.

Not only that, but I'm sure they'd love to remove the ability to disable SIP. At some point it will probably be forced on for certain system executables, then disable itself every boot, then be removed all together. After that they'll claim they improved security.

 

[AmpleApricots]

Sorry, still going with the Russians.

You don't need to trust either. I wouldn't - that was the point. I don't shed a tear for russians excluded from what is essentially western-ran projects, just like I won't shed a tear for the troons when that pendulum eventually swings the other way. But let's agree to disagree.

sideloading

There's a non-zero chance the EU will stop this insanity and force Apple to do the right thing yet again (in fact, I think they already did for EU customers, I don't keep up with Apple news). I was very surprised to stumble across a detailed repair manual for the iPhone 16 on Apple's website the other day. I like what the EU is doing for customer laws. It's not much but it's better than nothing. It'd be even more cool if they wouldn't try turning the EU into a mass surveillance state where encryption is outlawed every other week.

 

[GNU Abyss]

There's a non-zero chance the EU will stop this insanity and force Apple to do the right thing yet again (in fact, I think they already did for EU customers, I don't keep up with Apple news). I was very surprised to stumble across a detailed repair manual for the iPhone 16 on Apple's website the other day. I like what the EU is doing for customer laws. It's not much but it's better than nothing. It'd be even more cool if they wouldn't try turning the EU into a mass surveillance state where encryption is outlawed every other week.

Aren't modern phones, iPhones especially, going the way of soldering as much as they can onto the board? Sideloading is one thing, good luck repairing shit when almost nothing is detachable without expensive equipment.

 

[AmpleApricots]

repairing shit

Well, repairing here means usually just replacing components, like the battery or display, which honestly is "good enough" in most cases because that's the parts that tend to break and shorten the realistic lifetime of such a device. They didn't even let you do that. AFAIK Apple "keyed" displays and batteries with EEPROMs containing a unique key so you can't simply put in other ones and they'll be rejected by the OS (at least in theory, I think it got as far as getting nasty nono messages about "authenticity" and lowered performance, but anyone feel free to correct me, I never owned Apple). They seem to have been told to cut that out, I think. Especially a battery going bad limits the lifetime of many devices artifically. The components also often are glued in a way where you basically have to destroy the entire device to get them out if you don't have super-specific tooling.

They also have to come up with systems to remove the glue in easy enough ways. I think Apple experimented with pads you can warm up with a 9V battery, so the glue comes loose. Shows you that where there's a will there's a way and all the talk of "oh we have really good, non-profit-related reasons to do things like this for 'safety' " is just BS. That's why I cannot stand all these devices. They feel like the corporation behind them just allows you to use them temporarily for the money you pay. They don't feel like you own them.

And to imagine we once owned mobile phones/laptops where replacing the battery was as simple as taking the back cover off/opening a plastic lid and pulling it out.

 

[mentally retarded user]

Personally, I put my trust in nostalgic East Germans.

 

[Rusty Metal Skull Gun]

And to imagine we once owned mobile phones/laptops where replacing the battery was as simple as taking the back cover off/opening a plastic lid and pulling it out.

This 100% should be the norm again, and it's ridiculous we allowed it to get to this state. I'm somewhat shocked that the EU is doing something useful for once.

 

[ADHD Mate]

This 100% should be the norm again, and it's ridiculous we allowed it to get to this state. I'm somewhat shocked that the EU is doing something useful for once.

That's because normies don't care. It's funny that when 5 year old computers were actually obsolete they were more repairable than today, when arguably 10 year old laptops are fine for normal use. But back then they were made either for businesses or enthusiasts.

It's genuinely sad how much of good electronics go to waste because of anti-consumer practices and locked down systems.
Many smartphones that are 5+ could be easily daily driven if not for the fact there is no updates for them and most important apps like baking dropping support for older OS versions.
I remember having to ditch my BB Passport 3 years ago due to browser lacking modern JS support even though hardware was stilling holding well.

There is so much push for new tech that has no real use but is just pushed for numbers sake, and old one is abandoned.
And how much of this shit is now required for "normal life", as everything needs apps/connection to internet.

 

[Kola]

And to imagine we once owned mobile phones/laptops where replacing the battery was as simple as taking the back cover off/opening a plastic lid and pulling it out.

Apparently consumers were not interested in this feature and did not want to pay for it. If it results in a more expensive phone and there's no demand for it, why do it?

 

[AmpleApricots]

more expensive phone

Do you in all honesty believe Apple makes a razor thin margin on these $1000+ phones they push out each year (and support and repair contracts like apple care etc.)?

It's greed. The answer is always greed. Economic growth needs to be eternal, that's how the system is designed. That was fine when computers became horrendously outdated after 6 months and all romanticism aside, these computers of old were often shit. Built from the cheapest components. Cutting edge technology combined with the lowest production values possible. Over the years I dropped probably tens of thousands of bucks on computers that were incredibly poorly put together sometimes and which are outmaneuvered by $50 devices now.

But it was fine, because if you wanted to be in step, you needed that new device and the industry itself needed to learn and grow. Times are very different now. Lets take a PC from ten years ago. What would that be, lets say in the case of intel? Some Haskell? GTX 970? AMD R9 290? Still a perfectly serviceable machine. Light gaming not a problem. Hell throw in a newer graphics card and you can play many modern games just fine. For non-gaming applications it's ample. Don't even need to talk about that.

A computer "ten years ago" in 2000 would have been a 286 or 386. Try to play The Sims or Morrowind on that. The 286 was 16 bit.

So people keep the same PCs/consoles/laptops/phones/monitors for ten plus years now because they're still perfectly usable machines, or even buy them on the used market for a pittance... but how do they sell new ones then? By making them hard to repair. By making them impossible to use through software updates, maybe even by breaking them altogether in some insidious way. And we haven't even seen the end of it, for example the Logitech CEO already spoke about "Mouse subscriptions". This stuff is already happening to cars and software (like from Adobe). These are people that still want you to pay them money without really offering you anything in return because they want to/need to keep that momentum in the last decades because otherwise, everything collapses. What you want does not matter to them.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

Economic growth needs to be eternal, that's how the system is designed.

Don't bring up irrelevant topics.
Economic growth is the natural consequence of human beings acting freely in their own interest.
Think more about financial repression, the devaluation of currency, the constant regulation flood, and the embiggening of government, making it ever more important to infiltrate it openly or through lobbyism.
All of these trends contribute to increased short term orientation by businessmen.

Why would you make a long lasting product if your currency is being devalued? Why would you risk a 20 year plan when lawmakers have the power to render your business illegal at any point they wish?

 

[Kola]

Do you in all honesty believe Apple makes a razor thin margin on these $1000+ phones they push out each year (and support and repair contracts like apple care etc.)?

Not really but they are making something that people want because they keep buying them like hotcakes year after year. Phones with replaceable batteries are not selling that well. I don't see any reason for the government (or a higer level organization) to intervene when regular market forces are already at work deciding what features are worth including in phones. Lament it all you want but it's not a single company that's shaping phones into something you don't like, it's the consumers.

 

[ADHD Mate]

Phones with replaceable batteries are not selling that well.

What phones with replaceable batteries? There is no flagship tier smartphone with replaceable battery.
Even most mid tier phones nowadays don't have them.

Lament it all you want but it's not a single company that's shaping phones into something you don't like, it's the consumers.

The removal of replaceable batteries and headphone jacks was very deliberate move. Apple did it cause they have tight lock on their eco-system so they knew it will bring them profit long term.
Samsung first mocked them, but execs probably realized that they have very strong brand and can do the same.
The issue is most people go buy Galaxy or iPhone, so they don't even know what they are buying. But that's normal in every industry, and that's why we have consumer protections, because most don't want to live in society where you have to be expert in everything in order not to be fucked over.

 

[unaboomer]

Phones with replaceable batteries are not selling that well.

I would argue that this is because manufacturers began pairing "low tech" features like removable batteries with low-tier models that nobody wanted so they could phase them out entirely due to "lack of demand". They pulled the same shit with expandable SD storage and 3.5mm headphone jacks. "Customers don't want our Tracphone exclusive poverty phone with a milky 960x480 TN display? The market has spoken! SD cards and Aux ports have to go!"

It's like trying to find a non-sports car with a manual transmission--you have to get the lowest tier of the worst model, and it needs to be special ordered because nobody actually keeps it in their inventory. "Nobody wants manuals anymore!"

 

[geckogoy]

just like I won't shed a tear for the troons when that pendulum eventually swings the other way.

I think the worst part of the pendulum delusion is the implied center point that the current circumstance orbits around. Yea there has been back and forth in the past but its been pretty much nothing but forth for decades. If the plan is to wait for some fake secular pendulum god to put things right then this whole operation is probably a write-off.

 

[Kola]

What phones with replaceable batteries? There is no flagship tier smartphone with replaceable battery.
Even most mid tier phones nowadays don't have them.

But they used to, and that's not an essential enough feature to justify including it in newer phones. There are still phones with replaceable batteries, like the Fairphone (and several other models). Guess what, nobody's buying them. The consumers have made their choice - replaceable batteries are just not important enough to make a purchasing decision over them.

It's like trying to find a non-sports car with a manual transmission--you have to get the lowest tier of the worst model, and it needs to be special ordered because nobody actually keeps it in their inventory. "Nobody wants manuals anymore!"

That is true though. I don't see anyone actively seeking out cars with manual transmission. Most people prefer automatic, and that's how they buy cars. Those transmissions became gradually more popular over the years as consumers preferred to buy them in increasingly larger numbers.

 

[geckogoy]

Guess what, nobody's buying them. The consumers have made their choice - replaceable batteries are just not important enough to make a purchasing decision over them.

Dude, this isn't some vagary of the free market, the industry is well aware that dead and degraded batteries are a major driver of new sales. They most likely colluded to choke that off entirely because its bad for business, the only factor forcing their hand is the knowledge that replaceable batteries are bad for their revenue figures.

If its better to collude to provide a worse product against the will of your customers then that is in and of itself a market incentive