I owe Richard Stallman one big huge apology. I'm truly grateful for Free Software (free as in freedom. You know, that thing the USA used to stand for) because it seems to be the only alternative right now. Microsoft and Apple can never be trusted again, ever.
Sorry Richard. You were right. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to freedom.
That's why he only runs a machine built in the free as in freedom PRC? Not to get jingoistic, but when do you expect to see an exposé on Chinese hardware and firmware manufacturer's backdoor analysis by the Ministry of State Security (MSS) – 国家安全部 in the People's Daily. Sometime after they have freedom of press I suppose.
Hö? What has Apple done? And why not include Google?
In the case of Microsoft there is still no proof/evidence for a NSA backdoor in Microsoft Windows (and would that not show up in the leaked Win2000 source code?)
And even the Snowden documents do not allege that (please correct me if I am wrong).
What the Guardian claimed was that Microsoft helped to give access to Outlook.com. The NSA is mostly interested in online services. And this is a far bigger issue, because there is no real alternative for that. Because even if you compile your own Linux distribution you still use Google Gmail (Ha!) or visit this hacker news forum, and you have to trust a third party with your data. And even if that trust is merited the NSA can just slurp up the datastream in the Internet provider datacenters.
> In one case, after the government learned that a foreign intelligence target had ordered new computer hardware, the American manufacturer agreed to insert a back door into the product before it was shipped, someone familiar with the request told The Times.
> At Microsoft, as The Guardian has reported, the N.S.A. worked with company officials to get pre-encryption access to Microsoft’s most popular services, including Outlook e-mail, Skype Internet phone calls and chats, and SkyDrive, the company’s cloud storage service.
Sorry Richard. You were right. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to freedom.