[npvrite]

Can we all stop pretending that they don't abuse of their power and hold your deepest darkest secrets indefinitely? Even though most of us are law abiding citizens.

Can we please start making open hardware without Apple/google backdoors and stop pretending our systems are "secure".

Can we please write all software in Rust and stop using languages that weren't designed for security. Yes C is beautiful. Yes it also lets you shoot yourself in the foot.

Can we please use distributed systems to avoid censorship or holding our private information in the hands of the rich?

[oneplane]

No, we apparently can't, because every time someone attempts to do that, we don't end up with a usable end state or product that people actually want to use or participate in.

Perhaps we just haven't had success yet, and it's not impossible. But such desired outcomes tend to also require everyone to "be the same" (knowledge, skills, capabilities) or "want the same" (desire to spend time and attention on this sort of thing etc.) and that's not how people work.

[ethin]

I can't tell if your being sarcastic or actually serious, because nobody is rewriting everything in Rust.

[ycombinatrix]

GP said "write" not "rewrite"...

[dmz73]

>Can we all stop pretending that they don't abuse of their power and hold your deepest darkest secrets indefinitely? Even though most of us are law abiding citizens. I don't anyone know who thinks powerful don't abuse their power. It is the nature of the beast. And it seems none of us are law abiding citizens: https://www.saponelaw.com/blog/2019/10/professor-says-that-e...

>Can we please start making open hardware without Apple/google backdoors and stop pretending our systems are "secure". Few try...and either fail or languish in obscurity. You comment in itself is the proof that open hw cannot compete since you don't know of these open hw platforms and don't use them even tough you seem to advocate their creation here.

>Can we please write all software in Rust... Rust only eliminates memory safety issues of C/C++. There are large number of languages, some decades older than Rust, that provide various aspects of Rust memory safety without imposing the same limits...and some are being used but people always flock to either new and flashy or the most widely used. Besides, Rust still provides ample foot guns and pushes reliance on 3rd party libraries which replaces memory safety issues with supply chain issues. Not to mention the the very poor ergonomics of the language that purposefully shies away from a lot of syntax sugar that makes writing and reading (understanding) code easier.

>Can we please use distributed systems to avoid censorship or holding our private information in the hands of the rich? Even if you managed to persuade a lot of people to use these, some nodes will become popular/trusted and be targeted for censorship and propaganda and that will achieve the same result as the current model. Again, it is the nature of the beast.

What can be done? I don't know, probably nothing...things have to get to the point where most people are compelled to act because the alternative is death or worse, until such time there will just not be enough support for action to matter. Just how people are.

[zxvkhkxvdvbdxz]

> Rust only eliminates memory safety issues of C/C++

According to Microsoft, about 70% of all security bugs in their products are memory safety issues.

These could be all be eliminated with a language that doesn't allow it in the first place.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-70-percent-of-all-se...

[johnnyanmac]

Android, sure. There's still AOSP and there are a few niche devices dedicated to being as close to Open Hardware as we could be.

>Can we please write all software in Rust and stop using languages that weren't designed for security.

I'm all for it. But very few people want to pay for talent that can properly rewrite that legacy C/++ codebase into proper Rust.