JWZ weighs in on Signal again
JWZ weighs in on Signal again
Because of the ongoing fucktastrophe, the cries of "Use SIGNAL!" are constant and unavoidable. And I get it, it may be the least-bad option in a sea of terrible options. If, that is, you choose to ignore the advice of "don't use your phone for that shit" (the Stringer Bell Rule). But out of curiosit...
Yawn. Signal is still the easiest option to setup and perfectly fine opsec for the majority of people. For a centralized service, it is both open source and has a long history of malicious compliance with court orders. On top of that, it's maintained by a nonprofit foundation, the best possible steward for a centralized service.
If you're an activist or engaged in activism, use SimpleX or something similar. If you're just trying to chat with your aunt and don't want prying eyes seeing what you chat about, Signal is sufficient.
What's wrong with using signal as an activist? Lots of folks use it.
Or are you saying that activists may be targeted by governments using attacks that target signal's ui?
I'm saying that if who you talk to matters for your threat model just as much as what you say, you should pick a platform that's more anonymous. Signal knows the IP addresses of where your messages go, and that might be enough to uncover who is talking to whom. Certain governments might find that enough cause to abuse someone they don't like.
Signal says that you can use a VPN to hide that information even from them, but IMO, it's better if nobody has it in the first place, if it can be avoided.
It's centralised, bad: We know!
But how many people have YOU rescued from WhatsApp, anti-libre software?
Blah blah blah. Signal is the best consumer-grade encryption messenger out there. If you think you're going to get kidnapped and have your device stolen and be compelled to open it and don't have another PIN on your Signal, etc., ad nauseum, rinsus washus repitus, then you're just crying in the rain.
Get another cause. There are so many with much more important significance than this silly-assed, tired argument.
The vast majority of people can't even be bothered to delete WhatsApp for security concerns.
Whining about how signal isn't running off a Linux virtual machine that emulates a 1972 Turkish missile console looks like clown shit to damn near everyone and probably close to 80% of the people that have even cared enough to download signal in the first place.
Valid concerns and critiques are valid but, like, its open source dog. Just make it better. Make a federated version or whatever he wants, the source code is right there in the app.
This guy sounds like one of those dudes that thinks something is only good if nobody knows how to use it and success is measured in how widely it's rejected by consumers
This guy sounds like one of those dudes that thinks something is only good if nobody knows how to use it and success is measured in how widely it’s rejected by consumers
An elitist through and through
I'm guessing that JWZ isn't a fan based on the goatse image, lol
Who is this dude and why should I care about his opinion? He seems to be annoyed about signal, but I don't see him making any better suggestions.
Just an old FOSS coder who spews way too much vitriol about how nobody gets it except him.
He mostly wrote xscreensaver and once built a timebomb into it because he didn't like Debian's release policy.
And look at that article: he only links back to his own previous blog posts. Everything he writes is "I've been saying it for years, see how right I am?"
And I'm not even going into how dubious his timing is with yet another attack on Signal. I mean there's nothing new in that article except "now even Trump agrees with me"?!
The "timebomb" wasn't only because he didn't like Debian's release policy, it was because Debian users kept reporting already patched bugs on xscreensaver's upstream issue tracker that were only broken on the old versions Debian kept insisting they ship with because they have an insane "older is more stable" mentality.
Also, he wrote more than xscreensaver. He was an original dev of Netscape, was a huge advocate for them open-sourcing the code, and founder of Mozilla.org (both coming up with the name and registering the domain - although he's not exactly a huge fan of modern Mozilla). It's pretty safe to say that the open internet would not exist in the way it does today without him.
Yes, he's an opinionated "old man" at this point, and nobody is going to agree with everything he says. But as opinionated old men go, there are far worse out there - like Richard Stallman for example.
JWZ has had nothing but arrogant takes on a lot of things over the
yearsdecades. Mostly shitting on his fellow coders when xscreensaver really isn't any better. He is the embodiment of FOSS meritocracy-fueled sociopathy.Signal is OK as a beginner privacy tool. Like with all gateway drugs or gateway animes or gateway videogames, you gotta start somewhere.
But it does is certainly a platform at-risk. Storage is US-centered, connectivity can be cut at any moment, and it's quite centralized to the point of forbidding 3p clients from interacting with the main Signal "network".
I come from the 90s. XMPP / Jabber is so much better.