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posted by janrinok on Tuesday May 26 2015, @01:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the barbie-is-watching! dept.

El Reg published a story that quotes GNU evangelist and free-software advocate saying just about what we would expect him to say today about the current state of technology:

Linux GNU firebrand Richard Stallman says Windows and Mac OS are malware, Amazon is Orwellian, and anyone who trusts the internet-of-things is an ass. In a column for The Guardian, Stallman preaches to the non-technical masses about the evils of proprietary software and vendor lock-in, and how closed-door coding facilitates clandestine deals with nation state spy agencies.

"What kinds of programs constitute malware? Operating systems, first of all," Stallman testifies.

"Apple systems are malware too: MacOS snoops and shackles; iOS snoops, shackles, censors apps and has a backdoor.

"Even Android contains malware in a non-free component: a back door for remote forcible installation or de-installation of any app."

Stallman references a a Bloomberg report in saying Microsoft "sabotages" Windows users by disclosing vulnerabilities to the NSA before patches are released. It isn't just Windows and MacOS that Stallman brands malware: Barbie dolls, smart TVs, and cars also earn his ire thanks to the potential for marketers to secretly pry on a child's worst fears or listen in to lounge room conversations.

I'm not sure that I'm going to worry about Barbie dolls listening on conversations, but I understand his concerns. I have often wondered about the expansion of sophisticated computer technology into all aspects of life, such as in HDTVs and cars. The possibilities for abuse are many, and we have learned over recent years governments are not immune from exploiting vulnerabilities to commit serious crimes and violations of our civil liberties.


[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]

 
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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday May 26 2015, @02:09AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 26 2015, @02:09AM (#187827) Journal

    The following have been part of the Stupid Hackathon Project [stupidhackathon.com]

    The tongue in cheek announcement of the GNU tools as SaaS [github.io] project

    We've scaled enough, it's time to monetize

    We are extremely excited to announce our new funding from some long time friends in venture capital, Andreessen Horowitz. They lead a $150 million dollar private equity round at a $52 billion dollar valuation, which we will use to start generating revenue and take our software to the next level.

    As part of this deal, we will begin to add per-use fees to many of the popular GNU software we maintain, such as "ls", "dd", "cat", "grep", and many more. You can check out our pricing update and documentation on Github. Supported tools now include a "--pricing" flag so you can keep track of how much you owe us. For example, you can type "gcc --pricing" to get the amount you owe from compiling all those continuous integration deployments.

    GNU pricing project on GitHub [github.com]

    How to use

    Once the gnu-pricing/bin directory is in your path, simply use GNU tools as normal. To see the pricing breakdown from the command line, add the --pricing to see the cost breakdown for using that command. A record of how much you owe for using GNU commands will also be printed. You can pay this usage fee at " rel="url2html-7334">https://donate.fsf.org/.

    user@host:~$ gcc --pricing
    =======================
    Welcome to GNU Pricing!
    =======================

    Using many GNU tools now cost $0.01 per use.

    This command (gcc) has been used 2 times so far.

    Overall GNU command usage
    command usage   cost
    ------- -----   ----
    gcc     2       $.02
    ls      41      $.41
    md5sum  1       $.01
    uname   2       $.02
    ------- -----   ----
    Total   46      $.46

    Please pay the total cost at https://donate.fsf.org/

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Offtopic=1, Funny=4, Total=5
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5