I read it as “This is a silly Android thing that I don’t have to deal with because I use custom roms”.

I use Graphene and use this feature, but I can understand why it would seem silly to some people and I can think of use cases where you wouldn’t want it to happen (like using your phone as a security device with Haven (https://github.com/guardianproject/haven)) installed.

Most Android users don’t understand the BFU/AFU states and the security implications, it is good that default android is including a sane security default that’ll be pushed out to the standard Android users.

Welcome to the club :)

It is not enough to lock the phone.

An advanced attacker that has access to forensic imaging tools can pull data off of your phone as long as it has been unlocked the first time after boot.

There are some models and some OSs (like Graphene on the newest Pixels) that are safe, for the time being, in AFU mode. You still want to power the phone off if you have the chance.

In your friend’s situation, his phone can be powered, isolated from RF to prevent remote wiping and kept in a lock state in order to preserve the keys in memory until an exploit is found for that model. If the OS automatically reboots after 3 days, it prevents this kind of attack.

You want to do this even with custom roms.

Having your phone automatically go into the BFU state ensures that there’s only a small window for a thief to extract data from your phone.

If you ever think your phone is about to be stolen or seized you want to power it off for this exact reason.

It’s frustrating enough to make you lay colored eggs 🤔

I learned how to make a dual boot machine first.

My friend wanted to get me to install it, but he had a 2nd machine to run Windows on. So we figured out how to dual boot.

And then we learned how to fix windows boot issues 😮‍💨

We mostly did it for the challenge. Those Linux Magazine CDs with new distros and software were a monthly challenge of “How can I install this and also not destroy my ability to play Diablo?”

I definitely have lost at least one install to getting stuck in vim, flailing the keyboard and writing garbage data into a critical config file before rebooting.

Modern Linux is amazing in comparison, you can use it for essentially any task and it still has a capacity for customization that is astonishing.

The early days were interesting if you like getting lost in the terminal and figuring things out without a search engine. Lots of trial and error, finding documentation, reading documentation, etc.

It was interesting, but be glad you have access to modern Linux. There’s more to explore, better documentation, and the capabilities that you can pull in are still astonishing.

If you’re using KDE, look at KDE Connect: https://community.kde.org/KDEConnect

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The CVE system protects everyone that uses computers. It is a public service that forms the core of cybersecurity in the US and many other places. It does not cost the database any more money if people use it to provide services to clients.

Letting a private corporation take it over and put it behind a paywall now means that security, like so many other things, will only be available to people with money. It will make software and hardware more expensive by adding yet another license fee or subscription if you want software that gets security updates.

In addition, a closed database is just less useful. This system works because when one person notifies the system of an exploit then every other person now knows. That kind of system is much higher quality if you have more people that are able to access it.

An industry being created and earning money by providing cybersecurity services shows how useful such a system is for everyone. There are good paying jobs that depend on this data being freely available. New startups only need to provide service, they don’t need to raise the funds to buy into the security database because it is a public service. They also pay taxes (a significant amount if they’re charging $30,000 per audit), more than enough profit for the government to operate a database.

It’s not bad faith, it’s just a learned behavior that’s antisocial.

Outrageous comments are heavily rewarded in public social media where everyone is pseudo-anonymous. At the same time, almost nobody wants to be the person on the receiving end of outrageous takes.

We’re rewarding the wrong behaviours.

If you disagree with someone or someone tells you that you’re wrong you can just immediately block them with no effort.

People are so used to being able to instantly ignore anybody that they never develop the skills to deal with people disagreeing with them or having support an argument.

It’s a self-reinforcing cycle.

Otherwise I think that the idea of deleting all IP laws is just wishful (and naive) thinking, assuming people would cooperate and build on each other’s inventions/creations.

Given the state the world is currently in, I don’t see that happening soon.

There are plenty of examples of open sharing systems that are functional.

Science, for example. Nobody ‘owns’ the formulas that calculate orbits or the underlying mathematics that AI models are built on like Transformer networks or convolutional networks. The information is openly shared and given away to everyone that wants it and it is so powerful it has completely reshaped society everywhere on the Earth (except the Sentinel Islands).

Open Source projects, like Linux, are the foundation of the modern tech world. The ‘IP’ is freely available and you can copy or modify it as much as you’d like. Linus ‘owns’ the Linux project but anyone is free to take a copy of the Linux source code and modify it to whatever extent that they would like and form their own project.

Much of the software and services that people use are built on top of open source tools made by volunteers, for free; and most of the useful knowledge and progress for human society results from breakthroughs made in the sciences, who’s discoveries are also free and openly shared.

OP is a newbie and is externalizing his lack of knowledge.

A 747 would seem like a death trap if a toddler were given control but there, as here, it isn’t the plane that’s the problem.

Coming from Windows, Linux (especially when only talking about GUI environments) seems to not tell you anything about your problems. Eventually you learn how to find the relevant logs and the problems seem less arbitrary.

The most annoying thing about the Linux community is dealing with non-Linux users who learned everything they know about Linux from social media memes.

He tweeted once and is therefore canceled because social media doesn’t understand nuance or context

It’s literally a nothing situation that social media, in its drive to find outrage in every single thing, has blown completely out of proportion.

It’s just institutional racism with extra steps

Don’t buy your popcorn from China

Delete your Meta accounts, ffs

New Nichole just dropped