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by 4gotunameagain 253 days ago
Modern devices are simply too complex to be completely secure.

We have this tendency of adding more and more "features", more and more functionality 85% of which nobody asked for or has use for.

I believe that there will be a market for a small, bare bones secure OS in the future. Akin to how freeBSD is being run.
3 comments
immibis 252 days ago
Bunnie's Precursor? It sounds cool, but it's also expensive as fuck. If you thought $100 for a graphing calculator was a ripoff, the Precursor is a similar form factor and level of computational power, but costs $1000 and can't be used in maths exams.

https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2020/introducing-precurso... (currently down, might be up later)

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MASNeo 252 days ago
Would love a terminal and make world while on the go (-;
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AJ007 252 days ago
From reading comments on hn over the past couple of years, I'm disappointed how terrible the security practices and knowledge has become. All of this stuff is about to get a lot worse with generative AI.

There are complaints on this story, and on the recent one about the fsf phone project about how inconvenient it is to not be able to access banking apps on your mobile phone. I can't be bothered to enter my banking password every 30 minutes on my desktop! What, I'm supposed to have two phones?

The first thing someone is going to do when they steal your phone (after they saw you enter your password in public) is open your banking and money apps and exfiltrate as much as they can from your accounts. This happens every single day. None of those apps should be installed or logged in on your phone. Same goes for 2FA apps. That's like traveling with Louis Vuitton luggage which is basically a "steal me" sign.

That's the most basic stuff for people who aren't a CEO of a company that is in the crosshairs of state sponsored espionage attacks.

The problems with "bare bones secure OS" device remain the same from a physical access standpoint: social engineering, someone sees your password, steals the device. But otherwise, yes, the devices you install a bunch of spyware/adware games on and take to bars should not be the ones you are doing your banking, 2FA, work, etc on ever.

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