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Zaktoday at 1:00 AM2 repliesview on HN

Saying that computer/OS manufacturers should prevent malware is effectively equivalent to saying that they should not sell general purpose computers to the public. A general purpose computer is one that can run any program the users tells it to, which necessarily includes one that's malicious.

That doesn't necessarily preclude helping the user to notice when they're doing something dangerous, but a waiting period before the computer becomes general-purpose seems pretty extreme.


Replies

bitwizetoday at 3:44 AM

> Saying that computer/OS manufacturers should prevent malware is effectively equivalent to saying that they should not sell general purpose computers to the public.

(in Gilbert Huph (Wallace Shawn) voice) Yes, precisely!

charcircuittoday at 3:00 AM

The general consumer does not care about the distinction of if a product is technically a "general purpose computer" or not. They care about if the device is able to do what they want from it, providing them value.