According to the article there are now more than 3 billion Android users. I have no information to the contrary.
How do you expect to attempt to secure that many devices by allowing the platform to continue as it was?
You call it dumbing down, which I understand, but how do you stop all the click-happy people from installing the next nefarious “game”, when they already have little to no chance to avoid email spam and SMS scams, let alone LLM generated “custom targeted” exploits.
I get that there are users who use this (now) vanishing functionality, but are they representative of the total user base, or edge cases? Neither you nor I have any hard data on that, but I know that as an ICT professional, I’m an outlier.
I’m no friend of Google’s business model, but I don’t believe that they’re purposefully shooting themselves in the foot,mind you, I’ll concede that it has a poor track record in the past few years.
Let’s progress the conversation.
How would you protect essentially computer and security illiterate users from malware in a scalable and sustainable manner?
As an aside, I’m a long term (25+ years) Linux user and have used pretty much everything since the 6502 was part of the picture. In my professional opinion we haven’t begun to figure out how to do this in the desktop world, Android is so far the closest we’ve managed and I’m not seeing anything here (yet) that makes me see this as a mistake.
That’s not at all true. We no longer expect drivers to change sparkplugs (or batteries), even checking oil levels is beyond most, let alone using a manual gearbox or disabling airbags.
You have to understand that the fact that you’re here in this community participating in this discussion already puts you in a very small subset of humanity with technology skills not in evidence in the general public.
how to use their stuff. We don’t expect them to know what’s under the hood. But we do expect them to have knowledge of the rules of the road, what the traffic signs mean, the fact that driving at high speed into a wall is not desirable etc. Simple everyday stuff required to be able to use, not maintain, a car.
“read the stuff on screen and at least try to understand it” is the barest minimum. But we don’t even expect that of anyone anymore. Or even something as simple as if you see a red flashing sign saying “IF YOU DO THIS YOU WILL BE IN DANGER!”, at least try having a 2nd look
I’ve been writing software for a very long time. Users are essentially stupid and lazy. They don’t read what’s on a screen, even if it’s the only thing on the screen, even if you don’t give them any other options than clicking “Ok”.
When I say stupid, it’s not that they’re dumb, it’s that their mental model of the world doesn’t match the computer one, saying things like: “well, that’s stupid, it should be like this”, followed by a completely illogical and unimplementable world view of the problem they think is being solved.
For the majority of humanity, computers are magic and no amount of arguing here is going to change this in our lifetime. It’s why AI is welcomed with open arms and no thought to its reality.
Those “stupid and lazy” users own their phones, not you. They are the admins of their devices, not you. And as admins they should have full control over the security policy, not you.
They are the admins of their devices, not you. And as admins they should have full control over the security policy, not you.
I can’t agree with you there, a few years ago I installed Mint on my mum’s old desktop. It was either that or pay for a new Windows license to “upgrade” to Win10. She doesn’t have admin, doesn’t even know what admin is and would be unwilling to learn if she did know.
Not all users need to be admins, in fact most don’t want it.
Me, however, I get pissy if the machine stops me doing what I want to do.
You call it dumbing down, which I understand, but how do you stop all the click-happy people from installing the next nefarious “game”, when they already have little to no chance to avoid email spam and SMS scams, let alone LLM generated “custom targeted” exploits.
That’s the neat Part, you don’t
Their choice, their consequences. There are enough warnings on the way there, they are free people and were informed about the risks
As an aside, I’m a long term (25+ years) Linux user and have used pretty much everything since the 6502 was part of the picture. In my professional opinion we haven’t begun to figure out how to do this in the desktop world
App Distribution via Flatpaks and Immutable OS are already pretty much there. Did you try a recent Fedora Version?
Happy to debate.
According to the article there are now more than 3 billion Android users. I have no information to the contrary.
How do you expect to attempt to secure that many devices by allowing the platform to continue as it was?
You call it dumbing down, which I understand, but how do you stop all the click-happy people from installing the next nefarious “game”, when they already have little to no chance to avoid email spam and SMS scams, let alone LLM generated “custom targeted” exploits.
I get that there are users who use this (now) vanishing functionality, but are they representative of the total user base, or edge cases? Neither you nor I have any hard data on that, but I know that as an ICT professional, I’m an outlier.
I’m no friend of Google’s business model, but I don’t believe that they’re purposefully shooting themselves in the foot,mind you, I’ll concede that it has a poor track record in the past few years.
Let’s progress the conversation.
How would you protect essentially computer and security illiterate users from malware in a scalable and sustainable manner?
As an aside, I’m a long term (25+ years) Linux user and have used pretty much everything since the 6502 was part of the picture. In my professional opinion we haven’t begun to figure out how to do this in the desktop world, Android is so far the closest we’ve managed and I’m not seeing anything here (yet) that makes me see this as a mistake.
we expect everyone to take the time to learn how to use anything else. We just use the same expectations for tech stuff.
deleted by creator
That’s not at all true. We no longer expect drivers to change sparkplugs (or batteries), even checking oil levels is beyond most, let alone using a manual gearbox or disabling airbags.
You have to understand that the fact that you’re here in this community participating in this discussion already puts you in a very small subset of humanity with technology skills not in evidence in the general public.
how to use their stuff. We don’t expect them to know what’s under the hood. But we do expect them to have knowledge of the rules of the road, what the traffic signs mean, the fact that driving at high speed into a wall is not desirable etc. Simple everyday stuff required to be able to use, not maintain, a car.
“read the stuff on screen and at least try to understand it” is the barest minimum. But we don’t even expect that of anyone anymore. Or even something as simple as if you see a red flashing sign saying “IF YOU DO THIS YOU WILL BE IN DANGER!”, at least try having a 2nd look
I’ve been writing software for a very long time. Users are essentially stupid and lazy. They don’t read what’s on a screen, even if it’s the only thing on the screen, even if you don’t give them any other options than clicking “Ok”.
When I say stupid, it’s not that they’re dumb, it’s that their mental model of the world doesn’t match the computer one, saying things like: “well, that’s stupid, it should be like this”, followed by a completely illogical and unimplementable world view of the problem they think is being solved.
For the majority of humanity, computers are magic and no amount of arguing here is going to change this in our lifetime. It’s why AI is welcomed with open arms and no thought to its reality.
Those “stupid and lazy” users own their phones, not you. They are the admins of their devices, not you. And as admins they should have full control over the security policy, not you.
I can’t agree with you there, a few years ago I installed Mint on my mum’s old desktop. It was either that or pay for a new Windows license to “upgrade” to Win10. She doesn’t have admin, doesn’t even know what admin is and would be unwilling to learn if she did know.
Not all users need to be admins, in fact most don’t want it.
Me, however, I get pissy if the machine stops me doing what I want to do.
deleted by creator
That’s the neat Part, you don’t
Their choice, their consequences. There are enough warnings on the way there, they are free people and were informed about the risks
App Distribution via Flatpaks and Immutable OS are already pretty much there. Did you try a recent Fedora Version?