http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boo ... icted-boot
Will your computer's "Secure Boot" turn out to be "Restricted Boot"?
Will your computer's "Secure Boot" turn out to be "Restricted Boot"?
I think an easier way than forcing the user to have a locked up BIOS would be for Microsoft to release their OS on a CD.When done correctly, "Secure Boot" is designed to protect against malware by preventing computers from loading unauthorized binary programs when booting.
if one is careful, they can certainly find a gender neutral method to convey informationdarkcity wrote:Its because there is no gender neutral way to refer to a single person in the English language. This has been covered in another murga topic. You either have to use male or female orientation or the clunky s/he his/her. Sometimes those conscious of the default male orientation use the female one for a change.
That, to me, is any number of things --linuxbear wrote:They do not want to understand. They want computers to be an appliance. My sister decided not to use dropbox to share family photos because she did not want to take the time to learn how to do it.
I'm (for now) calling this concept "Modular UserSpace Computing". MUSC allows the hardware to sort of fade into the background. The community government handles the hardware, and all people have to do is worry about their own data. Probably the best data medium would be a large-capacity flash drive. Mechanical hard drives have a bad habit of dying after a sharp drop of 12-18 inches, however accidental, and proper SSDs are insanely expensive proportionate to capacity. SD cards are nice, but they're tiny and thin -- the easier for your toddler to swallow or stomp on (CRUNCH!), or for you to lose. Obviously, if the drive is wrecked or missing, all the data on it is gone as well. (The community can, as needed, provide a backup service, but this brings other problems with it, for sure!)A community (eg town, city, neighborhood, whatever) government distributes a bunch of computers, one or two to each household. These computers need not be high-power systems -- they need only to operate, and to be fairly inexpensive in the required bulk quantity. Assume that they're all the same (or, at least, similar enough that the differences don't matter).
While these systems do have removable storage, they do not have a hard drive or any sort of OS storage built in. Instead, the household is given a set of USB storage media -- one drive per person over age 6. Each drive (flash or external HDD, doesn't really matter) contains an OS and some base programs. There is plenty of space for user data.
The community in question also maintains a community software repo (this isn't hard -- just servers and a way of checking/approving/adding "clean" software), such that community members are able to download "approved" programs that they might need -- games, productivity software (word proc/spreadsheet/etc.), whatever they might need. While community members can setup and maintain their own repo if they want to (and can fund its construction privately -- the community won't help with this) they are required to note, upon access, that theirs is a private repo and the community government can't help with any problems that come from it.
Free or low-cost classes are provided by the community on how to properly and responsibly use the computers and media provided. People can take the classes if they wish (or not) -- but if they are found to be committing cybercrimes (or at least cybermisbehaving), they must (re-) take the class(es) as part of their punishment. If someone loses their drive, or it is damaged, they can obtain a replacement, but whatever can't be transferred from old to new, is gone. (This also encourages user responsibility.) If someone has a hardware problem, the community government takes care of that.
All of this would be paid for through taxing appropriate to the community -- for a town, there might be a $25-50/year mandatory "technology tax"; for a small neighborhood or subdivision, it comes from your homeowner's association dues.