Notices by resist.berlin (resistberlin@chaos.social)

@matt

The more professional the context and the more "serious" the requirements, the more attractive Debian becomes. Plus you can make it really free and there are both beginner and expert friendly desktop environments.

I have to install Ubuntu from time to time when the client really insists on it, but it's just terrible. Ubuntu MATE's software boutique recommends Adobe Flash for installation. No joke - it's even the first entry in the "internet" category. This is wrong on so many levels...

@0x8000

Yes, the differences in RAM requirements are pretty striking. I'm using MATE myself which is extremely lean compared to GNOME.

The laptop in question is a T420 with 8 GB of RAM so it is not that much of an issue in this case. GNOME will work just fine, and since the client also ordered a Tails stick, they will only have to learn one desktop environment. But on older machines with less than 4 GB of memory and a slower CPU GNOME is not really an option, that's correct.

@0x8000

Definitely worth a try, I should install it some time and play around with it. But I probably won't offer it to customers, for my own lack of experience. On Mate or GNOME I can usually solve problems immediately, I couldn't do that on KDE

Played around a bit with Debian GNOME. I have to say it's better than I thought, especially for beginners, because it is very streamlined and easy to configure. Less fiddly & more pretty than MATE, and not the non-free disaster that is Ubuntu 😬

Might default to Debian GNOME from now on, when the client has no idea. Debian MATE only for people who already have a bit of experience with GNU/Linux. We'll see 🙂

This is actually pretty good... I can only recommend watching it 👍

@kawaiipunk

Computer Security 1984:

https://archive.org/details/Computer1984_2

They even mention Wargames 😎

@flowfx I think they have learned their lesson 😊

https://gpgtools.org/releases/gpgsuite/2018.4/release-notes.html

https://gpgtools.org/open-letter

@wildermann

#GPGTools

See this: https://gpgtools.org/open-letter

So apparently lots of people are fine with spending 2000€, 3000€ or even more on overpriced hardware, with almost all of the money ending up in California.

But they are absolutely unwilling to pay 23,80€ for a well designed, essential tool made by a small european company that is otherwise not making enough money? It's even free software...

🤔

RA.643 The Hacker

https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=643

Great music for jacking into the matrix and navigating cyberspace. Also, this dude's alias is very fitting to our purposes 🙂

I should try out #Replicant|s "hard airplane mode" some time:

https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/ModemDisable

Looks like an okay solution. But what next? External WiFi is clumsy and drains the battery very quickly. Internal WiFi is non-free as well (albeit in all likelihood less dangerous to use than the baseband chip). But public WiFi infrastructure is terrible anyway, and as long as there's no easy way to spoof your MAC address, it will track you as well.

Everything is just terribly flawed...🤷♀️

"The second operating system hiding in every mobile phone"

This almost 5 year old article is particularly striking. None of the information in it is new (or was new at that point), but I share the sentiment of the author that a major problem is how forgiving (or rather, forgetful) we are. We are almost completely ignoring how absolutely horrible baseband processors are:

http://www.osnews.com/story/27416/The_second_operating_system_hiding_in_every_mobile_phone

@bob

Nice, good find! It's probably too weak for decent crypto, though? Which would be a requirement for activists 🤔

@bob

Ha - I had this idea the other day:

https://chaos.social/@resist_berlin/100600043957845032

Maybe it could be combined? People might really like that concept 🙂

@bob

I guess they are just one step away from becoming mandatory. "To activate your new passport/bank account/train ticket, we will send a PIN to your mobile device" or something like that. It's really around the corner.

LoRa looks very interesting. That or something similar is really needed. I would also be happy with hopping from WiFi to WiFi using a device that can do MAC spoofing, but even that is incredibly complicated to do on a phone (compared to MAC spoofing on a laptop).

@bob

We might need a new version of Godwin's law - all thoughtful techies (I assume we belong in that category) will eventually discuss mobile phones and/or mobile messaging, regardless where the discussion started, and conclude that the situation is dire.

So gloomy 😟

@bob

Tbh, I have given up all hope in the mobile sector. Even Purism or the Fairphone are far from convincing, they are just slight modifications of an essentially deadlocked concept, as you say.

We either need revolutionary new devices (or even device categories), re-use our existing stuff for as long as possible (which I'm okay with, it's at least eco-friendly) or give up using phones until something spectacular happens. 😕

I just hope mobile phones never become 100% mandatory 🤞

"Malware in Mobile Devices"

Good link collection on gnu.org, always worth a look:

https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-mobiles.html

It's an important reminder how imperative it is to get rid of stock firmware on mobile phones, but also how that only solves part of the problem. SIM card based tracking remains, and mobile phones are pretty invasive by nature. 😬

@monoxyd Warum ist das denn so langsam bzw. wo liegt der Flaschenhals? Eigentlich schafft selbst eine lahme USB 2.0 Festplatte in einer Stunde 100 GB Transfer. Oder waren das die ganze Zeit schon beginnende Ausfallserscheinungen?