Re:Microsoft ruined passwords, now aims for a passwordless f...
by bdamm on Tuesday September 21, 2021 @02:00PM
(#28607773)
Nope. I was making my point using a reflection of the language in the original blog post, where the author was talking about the free software "home" being free of surveillance. This was apparently different from the "home" of Apple and Facebook etc, where the user is buying into surveillance. My point is that it isn't, there are still vectors into installations made of free software.
Free software being out in the open makes analyzing it to find zero days easier, but also can be analyzed as a group. some companies, Google being a very notable case, are quite public about their efforts to evaluate and improve free software. So no, your distilled point is not the one I was trying to make.
Easy! Let's look at the words one by one:
* "The network", implied being the only one relevant to the reader, must therefore be The Internet
* "surveillance" means "observation", "looking at things", in the most general sense. How can The Internet look at things? The computers don't have agency; so we must revise "The Internet" to mean the people on the internet. Which is, for all intents and purposes, everyone.
* "Realm" means kingdom. In common usage, "Realm of..." means "everything relating to/comprising/surrounding ...". So "realm of free software" is just, well, free software and how it's used.
* Being "home to" something means that something is always there when we talk about concepts that lack agency, like the ability of people to look at things. "A is home to B" means that B is inherently a part of A.
So, putting it all together, we have:
>People knowing exactly what you make and how it's used is a part of making and using free software.
Or, to say it less clumsily:
>When you make free software, everyone can see how they're made and used
Simplifying further to:
>Anyone can see how free software is made and used
...which is, of course, the entire point. Duh.
Anyone; there you go, you're welcome!
PS: speech like that is exactly what Orwell wrote against back in the day[1]. You will enjoy reading it.
[1]https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...