Phone vendors (iOS + Android) invented the whole "t'is your phone, but actually, it isn't, we'll decide what you're allowed to run on it" trend.
It was just a matter of time until the disease spread to the desktop.
I am no fan of RMS for many reasons, but one thing can no one can take away from him: he totally foresaw the curtailing of freedoms decades before anyone else did.
It's fully here now.
I expect the next step to be: if you use an unrestricted platform (Linux, OpenBSD, etc...), you won't be granted access to major chunks of the internet.
And then next: if you want to use Linux, you'll need the IT equivalent of a carry permit from the govt.
> I expect the next step to be: if you use an unrestricted platform (Linux, OpenBSD, etc...), you won't be granted access to major chunks of the internet.
We already have this in the form of browser drm modules. It's not hard to imagine similar modules being implemented for network stacks. ISPs and internet exchanges can be required by law to drop any unencrypted traffic.
Lock down is an inevitability for any technology. General computing, Machine learning, Encryption, and other technology will inevitably get locked behind a sea of regulation. The only way to combat this is to keep governments playing catch up by innovating faster than they can legislate (e.g. mesh networks as a response to telecom overregulation).
It was just a matter of time until the disease spread to the desktop.
I am no fan of RMS for many reasons, but one thing can no one can take away from him: he totally foresaw the curtailing of freedoms decades before anyone else did.
It's fully here now.
I expect the next step to be: if you use an unrestricted platform (Linux, OpenBSD, etc...), you won't be granted access to major chunks of the internet.
And then next: if you want to use Linux, you'll need the IT equivalent of a carry permit from the govt.