Learned a lot from this essay/presentation. One point that I “liked” is how Trump and US based big tech virtually (pun intended) hold other countries hostage, either with export/import tariffs or by threatening to stop trade (“adapt this policy or forget about trading with us”) or with sensitive data.
Also, this is the organization that he is working for. They have some tools for and guides on privacy too: https://www.eff.org/
He is right about a lot of good points.
I’d like to add: We need general purpose computing devices. These are devices where you can run your own software on.
The necessary pre-requisite is that the bootloader of the device is unlockable and relockable. That is very important both in the context of desktop and mobile devices.
I think the main requirement for general purpose computing is the decoupling of software from hardware and allowing modularity.
The problem is that with Apple, Samsung, etc fully integrate the hardware and software in house, this means all the drivers and blobs can be kept in house secret.
On the other hand a PC can be built by anyone from hardware components they choose. In order to make this work all the drivers and blobs for all the hardware components need to be public, and therefore can be integrated into the Linux kernel, allowing anyone to use an open source OS on their system.
Totally agree! Samsung, which I use, allegedly intends to - or has maybe already - blocked bootloader unlocking in their latest OS update, One UI 8. To be on the safe side, I intend to stay on version 7. Still, it does “punish” me with a warning screen at ever boot, saying YOU’RE NOT USING THE OFFICIAL SOFTWARE BLABLABLA.
On another note, I remember the good old days when there were small businesses around the corner in my city that specifically did bootloader unlocking, gaming console modding and some other stuff that today is either unfeasible, finable or just straight illegal and punishable. Sad.
I also remember having successfully setup a raspberry pi for the first time ever in order to use it as a media hub. The first thing I did was to fire up Netflix - which I since have parted ways with - only to be greeted by a message that said that they don’t allow usage of their services on open platforms. Mmmm the rage that builds up inside of me as I’m typing this. Sorry, this last one didn’t have to do with bootloader unlocking and relocking.
He’s also very smart.
[…], we’re on the cusp of a new digital nervous system for the 21st century.
I like that way of painting things.
