Dropbox Brings Back Support For ZFS, XFS, Btrfs And eCryptFS On Linux

July 30, 2019

Dropbox bringing back functionality it dropped is a very Dropbox move. They have a great product and absolutely no interest in maintaining it. Instead, they pivot from new thing to new thing.

So I’m not surprised they would disruptively remove a feature and then put it back.

I’d say it’s good news for Linux users, but I suspect many left when Dropbox stopped supporting non-ext4 file systems.

Look for these file systems to lose support in a year or so.

Dropbox Brings Back Support For ZFS, XFS, Btrfs And eCryptFS On Linux | Linux Uprising Blog

Slack Security Incident for Keybase CEO

July 24, 2019

Max Krohn, CEO of Keybase, writes about the Slack security incident. I use Slack at work, and in fact started us using it. These security breaches are not surprising, although it’s weird that Slack just received new information about a security breach that took place in 2015.

The cloud is easy, but it’s not secure. You have third-parties attacking for data, but also the unclear motives of the companies holding the data for us (Germany just banned Microsoft, Google and Apple cloud tools from their schools because of data privacy concerns). It’s frustrating because these cloud-based tools are as problematic as they are convenient.

My journey with Slack started when it was a newish product, but as it got bigger, it got more attractive as a target. Unfortunately, once you have people using a tool, it’s tough to move them to someplace else (ie, the Keybase teams tool, which is supposed to be more secure than Slack). With the cloud, you need to be prepared to run to another tool when the current one is inevitably compromised. Of course, I could host something myself, but that’s a lot of work and cost for which I’d never be reimbursed.

Sadly, I don’t have a pithy closer for this. I wrote about these challenges almost 10 years ago and the issues are exactly the same. The cloud is complicated. Use it, but don’t trust it. Change your passwords. And just assume whatever you’re keeping in the cloud is compromised.

Slack Security Incident for Keybase CEO | Keybase blog

An open letter to Stewart Butterfield: Why Slack will never replace email

July 10, 2019

Plus, [email is] built on open, federated protocols, meaning that anyone can set up a server and store their data wherever they like. This is a technical way of saying I can email your Yahoo email address from my Gmail, and vice versa, unlike other closed messaging systems, where I cannot send you a WhatsApp message from my Messenger, for example.

Think about that — I can email anyone in the world with an email address, literally anyone, as long as they have an email address. That freedom is often overlooked.

Email is imperfect, to say the least, but it’s also amazing. We have all of these different services that can talk to each other. You can change your service without changing your email address (as long as you own your domain). It’s all just so cool and distributed.

It’s definitely worth noting that Dvir Ben-Aroya, the author of this piece, runs a company that looks like it’s working on a Slack alternative, so factor that into your enjoyment. My takeaway was that email is still impressively portable.

An open letter to Stewart Butterfield: Why Slack will never replace email | The Startup

I’m being watched at Amazon Go — and I don’t care

July 4, 2019

American society has been fed quite a bill of goods: that surrendering privacy with a return of convenience is a fair deal.

Semi-related is the idea that there’s no cost attached to cost-free services. But of course, it’s impossible to quantify the cost since we have no idea what companies do with our data. Are they using it to increase prices on certain goods they know we need? Are they preventing us from learning about less expensive options? If so, there is a cost attached to the loss of privacy.

This is the most chilling quote in the article: “As one millennial friend put it, “Take my data; give me free [stuff].'”

I hate to blame this on the millennials, because they’re not the only one sacrificing privacy for convenience. Just look at the demographics of Facebook.

Until we understand what happens with our data on closed platforms, we’re selling our own data without any idea of its true value, which feels positively un-American.

I’m being watched at Amazon Go — and I don’t care | Axios

Update on Steam, Ubuntu, and 32-bit support

July 2, 2019

When I first saw this Tweet, I assumed the issue would be resolved:

And it has:

In response to the concerns raised by ourselves and the wider community, the Ubuntu project recently discussed a more conservative approach wherein a selection of 32-bit libraries would still be available on the host system, through at least 20.04 LTS.

I don’t understand the technical issues here, but coordinating projects is hard and sometimes you need a dramatic announcement, like Pierre-Loup’s, to get everyone to see the challenge and get on the same page. So I’m happy things worked out.

Update on Steam, Ubuntu, and 32-bit support | Steam for Linux General Discussions

Letter of Recommendation: Bug Fixes

June 27, 2019

I like knowing how things are made. That’s the great lesson of software, to me: With open code and version control, the foundational document and the human process are one. We’re usually told to turn away from the sausage-making. With laws, TV shows, chicken nuggets or corporate mergers, it’s better not to know. Not in software, in which nothing is ever finished. Watching the commits, you can see the story taking shape. Or possibly shape the story yourself.

A very sweet, very accessible take on the beauty of free and open source software. Paul Ford gets into the technical strength, but also the political. It’s wonderful essay.

Letter of Recommendation: Bug Fixes | The New York Times

Even more evidence that Firefox wants to be the anti-Chrome

June 20, 2019

Mozilla is trying to encourage people to sign up for a Firefox account, which will be the conduit through which the company can offer paid, premium services like secure data storage and a virtual private network (VPN), which can protect you from hackers when you’re on a network that isn’t secure.

The Google issues are complex, but a huge part of what makes Google problematic is that a lot of people have so many eggs in the Google basket. Their email. Their passwords. Their files. Google can do what it wants, because people can’t easily exit their ecosystem.

So while I trust Mozilla and appreciate what they’re trying to do, I don’t think the answer is changing baskets. I think the answer is better egg distribution.

Even more evidence that Firefox wants to be the anti-Chrome | Fast Company