skeptical1

You seem to have expertly missed the point.

Who cares? If you don't take computer security seriously, you won't be computing much longer. Before it's over with, mine will be the only opinion still in existence. It's called "natural selection."

I don't want or need popup permission prompts. If something needs to run as root, I run it as root from the console, as God intended. In the process I am assuredly avoiding all sorts of potential security vulnerabilities, such as this polkit code which is not installed on my system. Now get off my lawn.

You're part of the second group I mentioned: the one that won't be computing much longer.

> Computer security really isn't THAT much of a nightmare for an average user.

"Average user" and "common idiot" are one and the same. Common idiots never see danger coming until it's too late.

> How many people do you know that got hacked lately, for any reason other than not using 2FA, or installing random garbage?

It's not about what has happened, it's about what easily CAN happen, and therefore WILL.

By the way, 2fa being forced down everyone's throat is not for your benefit. Notice how they never will allow you to use a voip number for 2fa? How could TPTB track your every move via GPS if you use voip?

> If you don't own cryptocurrency(That is more critical because it can't be reversed), you're probably way more at risk for physical theft than cyber crime.

LOL. Crypto is a scam. Bitcoin is going to crash to zero, and you're going to lose everything. Next TPTB will introduce their own Officially Approved digital currency, which is specially designed so that your account can be locked or restricted or emptied with the click of a mouse button, and so that you cannot possibly ever avoid any taxes.

You've got some tough lessons to learn about how the world works.

Meanwhile my use of physical, hard currency will keep me free and at liberty forever.

> In fact I think we are more secure than ever before because browser sandboxing actually works worth a crap, unlike 10 or so years ago.

If by "secure" you mean "in Google's firm grasp", you are correct. If you really meant "in control over your own computer", no, you are not.

Try patching Chromium to remove all the spyware and malware as I have done, and note how you and your browser are now treated as Enemies of the State by the Big Corp controlled internet.

> The more you strip out of a system, the more manual work you need to do

Freedom isn't free, nor is security.

> But a lot of things just... are barely worth it when ultra simplified, and you start spending more time than you save at a certain point

How would you know? You've never even tried to escape from the Goolag.

My system beats the brakes off yours in virtually every metric, especially speed and security, and has been worth every hour spent working on it.

> if you have attackers running as your user, you are already screwed.

You mean like the attackers you willingly give root access to your machine by allowing them to regularly stream arbitrary binary code to "your" (their) computer, and regular user access via metrics and update checks and every other sort of outgoing network connection on their schedule and not yours, any one of which could trigger a buffer overflow and code injection event? Yes, you are screwed six ways from Sunday.

Some programs can be configured to run without it. Others require patching to remove it. Some patches are trivial, others not so much. I've done a lot of patching, with still more required to get other applications running that I want to use. At some point I'm planning to build a "dummy" dbus library that can be linked against but actually does nothing at all, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Has bugs, is way too complex for the given functionality, and is completely unneeded in the first place--yes, get rid of the damn thing. Unless of course you enjoy getting "your" system OWNED and dominated by bad actors.

My custom distro beats the brakes off junkware like Ubuntu and (lol) Windows in startup time and responsiveness, and has all of the functionality I need, with half the code and as a result much fewer gaping security holes.

Computer security is an absolute nightmare these days. Intelligent people should be simplifying things and stripping everything down to the bare minimum, instead of stacking more crud on top of endless crud.

Those who fail to SECURE their systems and workflows will one day in the near future be surprised as shit to find that the entire "cloud" has been hacked and destroyed by worms and their system trashed right along with it. At that time, the world will be divided into two camps: computer owners (me and my kind) and non computer owners (everyone else.)

I've seen enough of this crowd to not be surprised at any ridiculous thing that happens here. Like having a 50 page Very Serious argument back and forth about some minor, irrelevant detail, possibly having nothing at all to do with the actual article, but a simple joke gets downmodded because ZOMG HOW INAPPROPRIATE. Or lest we forget, the various articles about things this crowd clearly knows nothing about, like politics or economics, but everyone has an opinion about anyhow.

By the way, given the frequent gasps of horror which are heard here when people are confronted with the horrifying suggestion that Microsoft is an evil corporation and people should use Linux or BSD instead, along the lines of "but I might have to compile my own wifi drivers tho! egads!", or those who are appalled at the idea of system startup using shell scripts ("the barbarity!") or the frequent snarky remarks that C is a terrible, horrible, no-good "unsafe" language that is unsuitable for any use (despite virtually everything else in the world depending on it), etc, etc, it's quite charitable to describe this as being a forum for "Hackers." In many cases, it's more like just a bunch of pretenders and wannabes.

Now how's that for humor? hehe...

Lynch mob in 3...2...

I read your comment profile, and know exactly what you mean about the "cancel culture." This is the first profile I've had here where I've actually managed to get a little positive 'karma' built up and avoid immediately getting downmodded into oblivion and run out on a rail. My very first account here a couple years ago, as a bright eyed noob, was literally shadowbanned within 15 minutes, which absolutely blew my mind.

The moderation system here is seriously broken, and has the effect of creating a toxic echo chamber of humorless trigger-happy goons. I've read a lot of complaints about it in various articles over the years, by names who no longer seem to be around. The response always seems to be EWONTFIX.

Yes, this is exactly why I don't run any of this crap on my distro. No dbus, no polkit, no systemd, nothing. Computer security is already enough of a nightmare without all this crap added on and linked in to everything.

It was a joke. Obviously. Jesus, this place is so humorless.

Hmmm...how about the fact that I don't engorge my piehole with mass quantities of junk food, become obese, then make pitiful and pathetic excuses for my lack of self control?

How about the fact that at 41 years old, I am much healthier than 95% of the U.S. high school graduating class of 2022, many of whom are too fat to see their own feet without a mirror?

How about the fact that my conscious CHOICES have kept me healthy and free of sickness for all of my adult life, despite society's attempt to brainwash me to become an unhealthy, disgusting lard ass?

Do you think any of that might indicate some form of superiority?

Do you agree with the other idiot that these poor, helpless obese people can't possibly do anything to help themselves? Then you are also genetically defective, and striving hard to bring down as many others as you can.

The idiot himself admits he is defective. Isn't that the entire point of the "but I just can't help myself" excuse? I tried to help him see reason and overcome his poor mindset, but he steadfastly stuck to his "I'm just defective and can't help myself" excuse. So I guess in the end I am forced to agree with him.