[leakycap]

> I think 100% compatibile [sic] working would be launching bloatware installed by the manufacturer.

Making a physical button work requires bloatware in your understanding?

> I'm happy not to have the pavlovian training that may some day cause me to click one of these things on someone's windows machine.

Do you know what you're trying to say here? I do not.

[pixl97]

I think it's more of the buttons perform specialized tricks to launch bloatware in Windows.

Some of the issue here is the keys themselves have almost no standardization, even across models. Hell, possibly in the same model sometimes. Some backend windows driver captures these signals via a 50 mile long series of if statements that make grown men weep when viewed. This later can mean your totally working fix for the kernel doesn't actually work on a 1/3rd of that fleet of laptops.

[leakycap]

> I think it's more of the buttons perform specialized tricks to launch bloatware in Windows.

The linked article is discussing play/pause buttons as well as a "mode-switch" button that allows the play/pause button to have a second function. I do not understand how any of these regular functions become bloatware in your estimation.

> Some of the issue here is the keys themselves have almost no standardization, even across models.

There is actually widespread standardization, which is why many important keys work by default. Laptops sometimes have buttons to disable the internal wifi or adjust the keyboard brightness. These keys are less universal, but still hard to categorize as bloatware.

> ome backend windows driver captures these signals via a 50 mile long series of if statements that make grown men weep when viewed.

I don't know any grown men who would weep when viewing this. I'm confused that you do not like a simple solution (if statements, which a computer has zero problems following precisely even if it is complex to you) nor the complex solution ("bloatware")

> This later can mean your totally working fix for the kernel doesn't actually work on a 1/3rd of that fleet of laptops.

Most devices used in fleets are well-supported in linux after a few years, specifically because of users like the linked article who spend time making buttons worked when pressed.

[firesteelrain]

I have a calculator button on my Dell laptop. Some of these keys are just macros.

[leakycap]

The calculator button is one of the "standardized" buttons, it isn't even as complex as macro as it turns out!

And very handy

[firesteelrain]

Really? I had assumed it was running calc.exe via some hidden command line window

[leakycap]

Yep! It's basically just a button that tells the OS "open the system calculator"

~~

I looked it up, the Human Interface Devices usage "Consumer Control" code assigned to "Application Launch - Calculator" is 0x0C0192 or 0x192

This keypress is sent as a scancode/keycode, not an ASCII character. On Windows, this opens calc.exe by default, but you can change which app opens in response to the calculator key by editing the media key mappings in the Registry

[fnicfnac]

You can obviously map arbitrary key codes however you want on a custom OS and have extremely little fear of someone having embedded nonsense down to the bios.

On windows many of these laptop buttons were added like the Yahoo browser bar to specifically work with bloatware that might go on to make a meaningful action for non malicious software as well as what it is really for.

I prefer not to be in the habit of pressing footguns given that I might occasionally be placed in front of a consumers windows laptop that no one cleaned.

[leakycap]

> I prefer not to be in the habit of pressing footguns given that I might occasionally be placed in front of a consumers windows laptop that no one cleaned.

If you're this anxious about security, you might not want to be anywhere near a Windows machine.

[fnicfnac]

I'm also looking forward to telling a driver that I never I wanted to be near cars when they eventually run me down.

[leakycap]

Did you mistakenly respond to the wrong thread?

[da_chicken]

I think they're trying to say avoiding a Windows computer is about as difficult as avoiding an automobile, and potentially just as fatal.

I think if they're honestly not being hyperbolic, they should find a less technical career or hobby. If you're afraid of flying, don't join the Air Force.

[fnicfnac]

I'm not sure if there is a word for people who choose high risk activities because they have less fear, because I'm not a coroner.. Perhaps because I'm not sure I have a healthy enough fear of death.

If you examine the stats with the assumption that you could be one who dies early and probably won't take up opioids then there is some logical reasoning to do about your relationship with cars and death. "Mistaking" that for fear is a defense mechanism.

The situation of the worse is better crowd and computer security increasingly looks like one of these things that I don't want to apply such a defense mechanism to.

Linux has not really gotten us closer to eliminating Windows yet it has eliminated a lot of the other approaches to eliminating Windows. Maybe it is only on par with the escooters that can now run me down on the sidewalk but don't seem to have reduced my risk from cars.