at least its not -254

what’s a door sensor good for?

at least its not -254

If you only interpret “transparent” as “open source”, then yeah, I agree.

Technically, yes. what I really mean is that people can look at it and determine it does not want to fuck people over, but that probably can’t really be done practically without it being open source.

If, however, you also consider “well documented” as “transparent”, then what exactly is the deal?

I don’t trust microsoft with having an accurate, honest documentation on something like this. but this reminded me of another aspect that even being open source does not really solve: what about changes in the future? I could be reading the docs or the source now, but I won’t even get to know when it updates.

And it’s already going to be opt-in.

I have my doubts about whether they’ll keep it that way

so in the end, the problem is really that its associated with microsoft. I have lost any trust in their words a long time ago.

that does not make it transparent, neither optional. and to clarify by optional I mean opt-in and no nagging

actually I could see it done online by omarchy. they have the money and the worldview for it

in a transparent and optional way it could be good. like even if just with controlling the screen with voice commands, like clicks this, open that. but only if it’s fully offline and easily auditable.

they already depend upon a manufacturer, as they require hardware security features only found in google pixels, which is a manufacturer that is even right now hostile to them

all 16 777 216 colors, actually

any change would break a billion things in real life, so we could at least have a proper replacement.

the problem with signal here is that it’s centralized, probably couldn’t even handle the load besides other problems. but that’s solvable, like look at simplex which is similar

usernames, like in signal. opt-in, customizable. maybe also add something automatically for the locality

not op but signal has basically solved this. users are not just randomly accessible by anyone. they can share a long URL that contains an ID, or make a short username they like and pass around to people. and even then the recipient has to accept being contacted by each other user

true that signal now relies on the phone number system for trust and safety, but that’s not core to how signal works, it could be replaced if they really wanted.

I would not want my VPN to be hosted in the US, and not only because of trump.

separate settings, separate addons, separate about prefs. also for when the PC is used by more than one person but there is only one user account

The only time something not controlled got popular was TikTok

I’m not sure what you mean by controlled, but how I got to know it was as the malware that’s recommended to everyone on the front page of the google play store, and then even factory preinstalled on a lot of them.

lol. microsoft manages the preinstalled signing keys for secure boot. all it needs to do is require motherboard makers to not allow disabling secure boot or installing a machine owner key.