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What even is an OS now?

310 points · 479 comments · fratellobigio

  1. chroma_zone · · focus · HN ↗
    > That makes a lot of sense in a world where we’re importing all our software from strangers. It makes less sense in the world we’re heading to, where most of the software we’re carving up fiefdoms for has the same provenance.

    If I'm running software written by an LLM, even if I was the one who prompted the LLM, I would still want my OS to treat it as if written by a stranger.

    I know he's not necessarily talking about relaxing security models here, but he's not being very specific about his vision otherwise.

    1. fennecbutt · · focus · HN ↗
      I mean, everything should eh sandboxed imo. Even OS included software.

      Problem with sandboxes is that it doesn't solve the "user who doesn't know or care" problem.

      If you have to give access to particular files to an app, your average user will just give access to all. Someone installing tiktok doesn't look at the permissions...

      The best thing would be for apps to operate on their own copy of a file regardless. But that doesn't stop bad apps from leaking importsnt files. Unless files can be signed as being for x thing requiring y special permissions as granted by the originator and not the user.

      The crowd on here we can't to be able to truly own our devices. But I think for the safety of the average person they should be locked down by default, same as dev mode on android devices where you accept liability for doing silly things.

      1. abecedarius · · focus · HN ↗
        The right basic idea is, the UI for "do X to Y" must combine designating which Y you want and giving permission to access that Y (and no other). It's when the OS shell separates these aspects that you have to choose between extra annoying useless permission pop-ups and any security boundaries.

        (Yes reworking our all our systems in terms of capability security is a giant job. But there's a difference between a giant job and )

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