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Top-level
 @davidrevoy drivers have literally zero reason to be proprietary. They are only meant to be used with certain devices THAT YOU'VE BOUGHT!!! Making source code of a driver visible won't help you make a new device and infringe on patents or what not. And even if one driver also works for another device of the same category, SO FUCKING WHAT THEN? It's not like anybody lost anything as the result. So what is the point of proprietary drivers? There's none! 7 comments
@davidrevoy I'm naïve, I know, but shouldn't this be just malware and therefore illegal then? @davidrevoy  @drq Yes, it was malware/illegal (at least in today's world Europe with RGPD, and bypassing user consent). But on Twitter, someone pointed me that now Wacom ask at install, but the sentence let think the hardware will function worst without accepting it; and the button to reject is difficult to find (a dark pattern). This , and a ToS and a "I accept" when user just install and want to benefit of their hardware makes it possible legally now.  @drq @davidrevoy Proprietarians going to think propietarily by default :(  @drq @davidrevoy Sometimes the driver is doing interesting things that give a competitive advantage. I don't like it but it happens. @drq @davidrevoy Wrong. Drivers work closely with their hardware and may contain protocol details, hardware descriptions or even parts of firmware which may give a hint to reverse engineers. The latter is especially sensitive in the modern age of SDH, when the firmware may *be* the hardware as such. |
Gregory's Server
@drq Yeah... Telemetry. Wacom was already caught hands full in the honey pot: https://robertheaton.com/2020/02/05/wacom-drawing-tablets-track-name-of-every-application-you-open/ .It made top news of many tech website https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wacom-tablet-sending-data-google-analytics and had to publish apologies and fix it (by adding option for consent, of course).
I guess it is the same here. Brands wants to know who use their driver, for what, how long... I would probably advice someone installing their driver to put the executable behind a strong firewall rule.
@drq Yeah... Telemetry. Wacom was already caught hands full in the honey pot: https://robertheaton.com/2020/02/05/wacom-drawing-tablets-track-name-of-every-application-you-open/ .It made top news of many tech website https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wacom-tablet-sending-data-google-analytics and had to publish apologies and fix it (by adding option for consent, of course).
I guess it is the same here. Brands wants to know who use their driver, for what, how long... I would probably advice someone...