←back to thread

Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification

(commonsware.com)
400 points ingve | 3 comments | 27 Aug 25 05:14 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
userbinator ◴[27 Aug 25 06:06 UTC] No.45035952[source]▶
This shouldn't just be "questions"; this should be a full-on opposition. Do not give them even an inch, or they'll take a mile.

"debugger vendors in 2047 distributed numbered copies only, and only to officially licensed and bonded programmers." - Richard Stallman, The Right to Read, 1997

replies(5): >>45035983 #>>45036017 #>>45036375 #>>45037682 #>>45048988 #
raverbashing ◴[27 Aug 25 06:11 UTC] No.45035983[source]▶
Stallman's fallacy is thinking every system is perfect and unbreakable and that people have a perfect understanding of software and systems (for better or for worse)

People will be running pirated debugger copies if that comes to shove

99.9% of people DNGAF about OSS. They do care about doing what they need on their phone without malware/bloatware/nagware

Also publishing and development are separate activities

replies(5): >>45035991 #>>45036010 #>>45036011 #>>45036030 #>>45036315 #
1. kazinator ◴[27 Aug 25 06:16 UTC] No.45036011[source]▶
I doubt that Stallman, of all people, thinks literally that. But systems which are breakable have ways of improving themselves, closing off the exploitable holes. So it makes sense to regard systems as being eventually unbreakable. Or at least having an unacceptably long "mean time between cracks". The game plan cannot simply be "oppressive software and hardware systems will always have imperfections so the good people will cheerfully get around them", even if is is de facto that way at some point in time w.r.t. certain systems. That's actually a kind of defeatist attitude disguised as optimism; passively accepting crap based on the faith that you will scrape through somehow.
replies(2): >>45036285 #>>45036411 #
2. raverbashing ◴[27 Aug 25 06:57 UTC] No.45036285[source]▶
> I doubt that Stallman, of all people, thinks literally that

Yeah I agree his opinion is probably more balanced, however Right to read is a short story displaying characters with too much learned helplessness and too little agency so I'm just going based on what he literally put to paper

3. godelski ◴[27 Aug 25 07:15 UTC] No.45036411[source]▶
What an absurd ask. How is a $2.5 trillion dollar company supposed to make any money if it has to spend a bit of time on security? Did you even think about the economy?

Clearly it wasn't doing fine in 2018 when Apple became the first trillion dollar company. Nor was it when in 2012 when Apple's market cap exceeded oil companies, barely breaking half a trillion dollars. And the economy was definitely in shambles back in 2005 when no company even had a 400bn market cap! Seriously, how could the economy ever survive?!

Where would the wold be without all those innovations. Like the 2005 invention of YouTube, the 2007 release of the iPhone. Where would we be without such world changing technologies that followed with tech's rise in global dominance? Technologies like, Bitcoin, VR, and an even thinner iPhone? Do you even know how many peoples' lives these technologies have saved? Seriously? Because I don't...