Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

It's been two weeks since my second vaccination, so we celebrated our immunity by eating *inside* a restaurant for the first time in a long time. It was weird but also amazing.

Something about this Epic lawsuit is causing some Apple users to notice the pot of water they are bathing in is getting hot.

Couldn't have said it better myself: "Apple says it's protecting our security and privacy, but it has become clear that locking down our iPhones is also about controlling us so Apple can make more money." https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/27/apple-iphone-monopoly/

You sometimes hear people say Linux (and by extension Open Source) "won" because of how ubiquitous it is in Android phones and IoT devices.

Yet today's release of Google's new OS Fuchsia on Nest devices points to a future where Linux is left behind. This is a future where the dominant OSes on devices are Fuchsia, iOS, and Windows.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/google-launches-its-third-major-operating-system-fuchsia/

I remember when it seemed like the open chat standard XMPP "won" 15 years ago when Google Talk adopted it. It seemed like maybe the bad old days of proprietary chat protocols were over.

Google of course abandoned XMPP and later 5 or so other chat protocols. Today the messaging world is a mess of proprietary protocols and networks all reinventing the same wheels.

Apple's testimony today describes their future for computing. In the name of security, Apple wants to vet (and get a cut from) all software installed on all Macs, not just iPhones. This has always been the plan, but it takes time to boil the frog that is traditional computers.

Also this release seems to have done away with the pip install that was in the OpenSnitch UI post-install script and just pulls in dependency packages, so another big improvement.

There's a new OpenSnitch release candidate 1.4.0-rc.2. This one specifically mentions improved window layouts for Librem 5: https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch/discussions/415

The phish you warned them all about
The patch they said they could do without
They're in an awful mess
And I don't mean maybe
Please...

Business got breached
they're in trouble deep
Business got breached
they've been losing sleep
But they've made up their mind
they're paying the ransom
Ooh, they're gonna pay the ransom

IRC wouldn't be IRC without some network having a dramatic schism every few years. It's sort of baked into the life cycle, like a forest fire.

Now that cars have become rolling smartphones, it's been pretty disappointing to see them copy some of the worst practices from the smartphone world. I wrote an article that talks about some of those problems. [CW: Tesla negativity] https://puri.sm/posts/locked-in-a-remote-control-car/

Happy Tax Day, for those that observe.

Many people turn a blind eye to Apple's absolute control over products and how they restrict a customer's freedom, because they trust Apple won't abuse that power.

That control takes on a new significance when it's handed over to the Chinese government.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html

It must be the tangibility. I've fixed countless computers over the years, but they rarely provide the same sense of accomplishment. Maybe it's because I take tech skills for granted, or maybe it's the visceral sense that this quiet engine that was dead now growls and is alive.