alt Hacker News> We have Android, macOS, and iOS, all with limited access to the system, requiring end-user intervention to access certain resources. But what about the Linux desktop?
The author forgot Windows Vista which started this whole shitshow of granular permission popups ;)
But am I the only one who fundamentally does not want this permission popup crap on a desktop operating system? I explicitly want applications to access the data of other applications or even remote-control other apps, that's the base for building automated workflows where the result is more than the sum of its parts.
Let me define sandbox boundaries for whole groups of applications and special safe locations for actually sensitive data, not require each application to live in its own isolated sandbox.
Agreed! I don't want an aggressively locked-down system. I don't want every application sandboxed as the only well-supported offering. I don't want to learn a new paradigm for letting a browser configure an HID device. I don't want to buy a Mac just to have working DAW plugins. I want to have wmctrl scripts (or, on Windows, AHK) at work so that I don't need to manually drag every window for a specific workflow across multiple computers into it's proper position and size.
The Android security model, FWIW, is also annoying as hell to me. You used to be able to translate inline without an always-onscreen "bubble". Most Android implementations will auto-revoke permissions on unused apps. Older apps (like the Neumann microphone app) were feature complete and have no obvious mechanism for remote exploits (it's a special purpose calculator) but will no longer run on modern Android versions "for security reasons". (You can still install the hard way via adb incantations or retargeting the APK to a supported SDK version.) If I use Dmytro Ponomarenko's audio recorder, I can't access recordings using Files, the "easy way" is to click Share and then email files to myself or install a third-party file manager and give it broader access permissions. It's hit-or-miss if password managers detect the entry field in a browser. It took way longer than necessary to figure out how to get an app to read/write an HID device using the Android Developer documentation, and even after specifically targetting one VID/PID in the source code, you still need to verify you want to access your connected device every time you plug it in. Now, signs point toward Android further restricting APK publication and installation?