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Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification

(commonsware.com)
400 points ingve | 3 comments | 27 Aug 25 05:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.497s | source
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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

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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

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1. recursivecaveat ◴[27 Aug 25 06:59 UTC] No.45036315[source]▶
I wouldn't bet on hackers saving us from everything. There are 150 million Nintendo Switches in the world, and nobody has figured out how to jailbreak one without getting into the hardware and shorting some wires (and even then only on early unpatched models). I don't think its out of the realm of possibility to make a best-selling phone that stays uncrackable for the general population for its entire lifecycle.
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2. lstodd ◴[27 Aug 25 09:36 UTC] No.45037310[source]▶
> I don't think its out of the realm of possibility to make a best-selling phone that stays uncrackable for the general population for its entire lifecycle.

It is surely possible if only because the general population is not interested in infosec.

On the gripping hand,firmware writing practices being that they are; it is impossible to produce an uncrackable phone.

3. autoexec ◴[27 Aug 25 09:53 UTC] No.45037437[source]▶
> There are 150 million Nintendo Switches in the world, and nobody has figured out how to jailbreak one without getting into the hardware and shorting some wires (and even then only on early unpatched models).

It's is acceptable for the hack to be difficult so long as it exists. I'm sure later models will eventually be jailbroken too. In the meantime, all of nintendo's best efforts haven't ended the piracy of switch games which is what the vast majority of people care about, not getting their favorite linux distro to run on the hardware itself.