Home customers get to see different ads on their screen besides Google's own Adsense garbage. BFD!

Yeah it's a BFD, Lenovo took money to install an application that deliberately reduced end user security for the sake of inserting ads into their browsing activities! Not only is it completely bereft of ethics and respect for their customers, it's actively dangerous.

They shouldn't just be hit via a class action suit (assuming Lenovo isn't sticking a "binding arbitration" clause to defeat the ability for consumers to seek recourse) but Federal prosecution under one of the many computer security laws that would string up anyone else.

Tablets are still a grey area and you can't point to a single person who had action taken against them... if anything were tried at this point they would fall undertake same ruling.

Due to the way the DMCA is written, jailbreaking is presumed illegal unless the LoC gives an exemption. An exemption was explicitly requested for tablets and was denied via tortured logic. Consoles were covered too. Phones were retained, but cellphone unlocking was covered under the tortured legalese as well, and made illegal (thus the Congressional rush to make it legal.)

anyone jailbreaking is probably downloading torrents already, so why does legality matter again?

Because it shouldn't be a federal crime to use your device as you see fit, regardless of whether they'll actually prosecute. This notion that people using their devices freely is somehow inherently associated with criminality is part of a shitty, insulting mindset.

Metaphorically speaking that is always true of a device you have physical control of.

Yes, metaphorically speaking. Practically speaking, they're making a pretty direct statement that you are not in control, they are.

The state in many cases says choices should not be made by those not capable of making them.

Holy shit, when they do this it's due to mental impairment, not lack of education!

Similarly I am fine with device makers adding enough security so someone skilled enough to deal with the repercussions of removing them can do whatever they like, which is the world we live in today.

Except this isn't similar! The device vendor arbitrarily declares themselves the authority and fight against you to enforce it. And no amount of competency or education will convince them to give you control - they have reserved it for themselves.

Car makers in no way support custom ECUs in the same way phone makers do not support jailbreaking or rooting.

Car vendors don't weld the hood shut or put other things into the engine to prevent you from making that modification.

It's pretty equivalent to jailbreaking that you have the literal keys because you have physical control of the device.

Jailbreaking would be akin to having to saw open the hood or find a way to trick the vendor-controlled hood lock to unlatch and let you in. And Ford/GM would be petitioning the Library of Congress to disallow a DMCA exemption.

A better one would be doing something like altering an ECU in a car and then changing parameters without understanding what you are doing, and blowing an engine...

And yet there are 3rd party kits to modify the ECUs (or outright replace) of a lot of vehicles.

Of course, doing that would void your warranty if they could show the modified ECU caused the failure, which I am entirely OK with. Vendors should put the keys in your hand, but if you turn that lock you take your fate in your own hands.

Obviously, that's the only reason people use PCs and not consoles. On PCs everyone just pirates everything, no one ever pirates anything. That's why there's nothing happening at all on PCs and everything happens on consoles.

But you ARE legally able to Free any device. Jailbreaking was explicitly declared legal to do, and indeed plenty of people do so.

Except on tablets, where it's still illegal. And Apple will be right behind you to close that hole and petition the Library of Congress to make jailbreaking of your handset illegal.

But you ARE legally able to Free any device. Jailbreaking was explicitly declared legal to do, and indeed plenty of people do so.

Devices do not need to be inherently insecure, they should be secure by default. But said security needs to put the keys in the hands of the user, which so few modern devices do. So if you turn off the security or break it, you can't effectively re-secure it on your terms.

just don't see where it's realistic or even a good idea to hold every product to that standard.

Is it realistic to hold every device to a standard that, if they're online, they're secure? Then it should also be reasonable for the user to be able to make decisions about that security, even if that decision is "leave it as-is."

dislike all the procs running

Oh no, there are processes running!

mem wasted

Exactly how is it wasted?

I always laugh when people look at my display. I use a red/orange color to highlight the active window and grey for the inactive ones. there is no trash icon, no iconbox, no drag/drop. a short menu appears when you click into space (no clients under) and then pick which foreground rxvt opens up (all with black bg's).

So basically, you'd be happy with a modern-day amber phosphor display?

I've been using this layout for literally over 25 yrs (starting with twm and using mwm for a short while, when motif was still popular).

Ah, so you're getting old and resistant to change, particularly when it's change that doesn't suit you.

we should NOT have to flip over backwards to remove a stupid should-not-be-there-anyway daemon and its evil libs.

So don't use the systems that do use those EBIL DEBIL'S LIBS. Go fund the development of a platform that conforms to your wishes. Don't bitch when others move on and do different things.

No they aren't.

Rather, the anti-systemd crowd is making up stories about the advocates, slinging vitriol and hatred, and engaging in pretty much any sort of abuse they can engage in towards the systemd developers.

I have seen few rational, logical, unemotional criticisms of systemd and lots and logs of reactionary bullshit.

start by getting rid of Stallman

What would this accomplish, other than be a silly attempt at silencing someone you don't like?

write some damned drivers

Go tell the hardware vendors to do that.

make an easy to use system that doesn't require 5 hours of Googling on how to get a laptop soundcard to work.

Funny, I haven't had issues with sound in ages. Perhaps you haven't used Linux in the past 10 years?

that's precisely why i actually worked hard and risked destroying my business by losing access to all data on a critical business laptop

No offense, but while I've watched many of your projects with interest, if you "risked destroying [your] business because of losing access to data on a single laptop, you just might deserve to go out of business due to sheer stupidity. Both in lack of redundancy and doing whatever it was you were doing on what is effectively a "production" system.

I'll be amazed if the GP does. Not because he chooses to take the high road, but because he's spouting BS.

It's the systemd guys that have been acting like children and constantly attack Linux users for pointing-out bugs.And it's been hostile reactionaries that have made death threats and spout technically and factually incorrect things about systemd.

After posting a reproduction script to the mailing list about a problem with systemd ignoring the exit status from a script, I was told by one of the main devs that he hoped my mother got cancer.

The systemd mailing list is public, right? Cause you could totally be making shit up right now...

You also have kids like http://slashdot.org/~Eunuchswe... here that post some nasty replies, and it appears from looking at the moderation on the posts he is replying to that he or his friends have mod points and are using them to attack people that post about systemd problems.

IT'S A CONSPIRACY!

For all the fledgling nerds-to-be in AR, I hope they can find a good, long-term solution to the problem.

Indeed. Programs like EAST, which were originated in AR, are a good approach. They're offering training to help teachers for things like AP Computer Science via the state universities.

And if they succeed in their CS education goals, maybe they'll find a way to get tech companies to set up shop in the state for more than just tech support. Lack of interesting work was one of the reasons I ended up leaving after finishing college, and (shock) I ended up in NorCal.

Now it's being done in a way that is also compatible with proprietary software

Which is why Microsoft and Apple have been aggressively pushing BSD-style licenses. The notion of end-user freedoms is obviously antithetical to the way they want to push computing, so they fight against it.

It leaves the users of the closed code in the lurch, which the GPL was designed to fix.