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by lovelyviking 2175 days ago
>You'll have to trust somebody at some point.

No, I do not have to. I can choose to, but I don't have to! That is the core of the issue.If I 'have to' then I don't. I prefer checking and facts, not delusions.

>Do you trust the company who designed your Ethernet chip?

No, I don't and we shouldn't. I evaluate chances and we should track network activity with diff. hardware on diff. chipsets from diff. manufacturers.

>Do you trust the person who wrote the firmware for it?

No, I don't and we shouldn't as it's insane to do so.

>If not, go and design your own network chip.

There are other means to overcome this: encryption. But yes, you right, we should make open source network chip. Agree. I certainly plan to design it.

>Otherwise, there's no guarantee it won't spy on you. That is correct, I agree with you.

>You'll also want to write your own compiler.

Yes, that is correct. I want and I am writing it right now. There is also an option of GNU c/c++ compiler available (GCC) https://gcc.gnu.org

>that you'll then use to build the operating system you intend to run.

This is how you build a proper GNU/Linux system worth some degree of your trust.

>You won't just go download some Linux .iso to install, would you? After all, there's no guarantee it's not been manipulated by those who offer it on their website.

Exactly. Or it can be modified on the way, while you download it. For the later you can check hash sums published by a site who respects user freedom and cares about own reputation.

>You'll have to trust somebody at some point.

Again I do not have to, but I can choose to trust with some degree to Richard Stallman and people sharing his views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9YDz-Iwgyw

I have some trouble trusting FSF since he was removed from the position due to false accusations for saying (!) just saying things, which he actually didn't say if you read carefully. Speak about respect of freedom of speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UbQ1kc1vQU

To trust the system we should have trust worthy components with open sourced designs starting from CPU and every chip installed and ending with each software running. That is the only way!