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1. Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 06:51:10 UTC Bob Mottram

   • Danyl Strype
   • futureBoyfriend
   @deadsuperhero @strypey There have been Twitter exoduses before. One happened last year. I think a combination of things precipitated this one.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 06:53:42 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     • Eugen 💀
     • futureBoyfriend
     @strypey @gargron @deadsuperhero if mastodon gets popular enough I'm sure the vultures will circle.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 06:56:41 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     • Eugen 💀
     • futureBoyfriend
     @deadsuperhero @strypey @gargron give it a week and the tech journos will move on to the next shiny
   • futureBoyfriend (deadsuperhero@social.nasqueron.org)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 07:42:06 UTC futureBoyfriend

     • Matthew Davidson
     • Danyl Strype

     @strypey @mjd The remarkable thing about this, though, is that the federation has to some level been able to sufficiently self-organize over the years.

     The addition of a new app that can federate with a good chunk of it actually is a testament to federation itself, and validates that it not only works, but can work well enough to make the model more appealing.

     Bob Mottram repeated this.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 08:04:49 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     @strypey yes I read that one too. Mashable seems pretty awful, but then this kind of simple-minded "genius invents widget out of nowhere in flash of inspiration" narrative is common in msm articles about technology. It fits their biases.
   • Danyl Strype (strypey@quitter.se)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 11:19:10 UTC Danyl Strype

     • Danyl Strype
     • Bad End
     @neimzr4luzerz I'm not saying corporations using or contributing to Linux is bad. I'm saying Linus allowing binary blobs in #Linux is bad
     Bob Mottram repeated this.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 11:31:09 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     • Bad End
     @strypey @neimzr4luzerz I read the Torvalds biography long ago, called Just for Fun, and based upon that it sounds like he sold out pretty early on. It explains a lot about his current "meh" attitude towards blobs and such. That said, I don't think Linus is a bad person, even though the tech media have tried to snag him repeatedly. He's just a human, and many of us in that kind of situation would be tempted to do the same thing.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 12:19:40 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     • Bad End
     @strypey @neimzr4luzerz If Linus had more backbone, then yes. He is in a position where he can significantly decide whether the kernel is free or not. He could decide to banish the blobs. There would be a lot of support for that, but it would piss off some companies which probably include the ones paying his salary. Linus' logic is probably quite simple and straightforward: do anything which allows me to continue what I'm doing.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 13:30:11 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     • Bad End
     @neimzr4luzerz @strypey it's more likely that other microkernels might be adopted. There's one in RedoxOS. Google is allegedly developing another.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 13:46:51 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     @strypey other unix-like systems
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 13:52:59 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     @strypey given the length of time which HURD has been in development, apparently without much progress, other microkernels might get more traction.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 14:03:12 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     @strypey I think there is, and I think it has been around for a while. What seems to be the main issue with microkernels is overcoming latency/coordination issues and also getting developers interested in writing drivers (which are in userspace in the microkernel model, and treated like any other software package). In a monolithic kernel coordination of memory and resources is easier to handle because it's on a centralized schedule, but as more and more CPUs are added to modern processors the monolithic model may not be able to take the strain.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 14:55:48 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     @strypey could be. Most people thought microkernels were a failed technology, but perhaps they'll make a comeback.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 15:04:04 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     @strypey in the current kernel a lot of drivers are built in. For example my ChaosKey hardware random number generator "just works" with kernels above some version number because the code is built in. If it was a microkernel design the ChaosKey driver would be a separate app and the kernel would then be something very minimal doing things like allocating memory to apps and scheduling when they can run. From a security point of view it would make the kernel way easier to audit. For example I think the microkernel of RedoxOS is only a few thousand lines of code, compared to the 15+ million of Linux. Having drivers in userland might also mean better permissions control, whereas in Linux all loaded drivers have root and can do anything.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 15:30:11 UTC Bob Mottram

     • Danyl Strype
     @strypey a keylogger which then sends everything to some other domain is a scarily easy kernel module to write. You can find things like that on Github. So yes it is possible that blobs could do things like that.
   • Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Saturday, 08-Apr-2017 15:52:10 UTC Bob Mottram

     • GNU Parabola/Linux-libre
     • Danyl Strype
     @strypey right. I run !Parabola on desktop and laptop machines. afaik the only blobs on my systems are drivers within LineageOS on my phone.