No Ctrl-C's were harmed in the making of this post.
With a Presidential election days away, the biggest ways to record online statements are conspicuously broken.
Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.
It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.
Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links? Check here:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm
Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal
Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.
Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣
Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links?
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm
Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal
Hrm... never had to worry about this, with Windows. Although, it DID happen a couple times with OSX.
Don't think I'm going to bother with this version of Tuxedo, tbh
Hi all! An update from within everyones most favorite regime, China.
I went with NordVPN and Mullvad. Haven't needed Nord yet, Mullvad is performing well.
Got through customs easier than I did re-entering my own country the last time I went travelling. I also have to say, the hi-tech culture here is whacky. They adopted the automatic passport processing that the EU uses partially, so you get a speed bonus with an EU issued passport. That was an unexpected boon. Also taxi is cheap and the cars are fancy.
No-one can drive though. I have felt safer in rollercoasters xD
Anyways, I'll ve focusing on the stuff here. Ill be back by the end of the month. I'm sure I'll have some tall tech tales to tell by then :)
Need a magnifier for your Osborne 1? https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/dipcos-easy-reader
On Monday, October 28th, Apple released the macOS 15.1 update. And, with that update, Apple has ratcheted up their war on "sideloading" by completely disabling the ability to run unsigned macOS software.
And signing software, of course, requires an Apple Developer Connection subscription. Which, for most people, is a costly thing.
Just a little over one month ago (September of 2024), the initial release of macOS 15.0 brought with it a new round of restrictions on running non-signed (also called "non-notarized") applications. With 15.0, users could still run non-signed software... but they needed to jump through a few extra hoops by openning the System Settings and manually enabling each application they wanted to run.
This change made running unsigned software on macOS a bit more annoying -- additional steps to do something that used to be a simple "double click on the darned icon" process. Annoying, to be sure. But, luckily, all software could still be run.
That all changed -- less than 45 days later -- as Apple released the 15.1 update to macOS, which included the removal of the "Click around in System Settings" option to allow unsigned apps to run.
Now, in 15.1, when you attempt to run a non-notarized piece of Mac software, you will be greeted by a simple error message: "The application 'Finder' does not have permission to open '(null)'."
No option to run the software whatsoever. Effectively banning all non-signed software (such as those developed by a hobbyist).
This isn't exactly a surprising move by Apple. Over the last few years, all of the Big Tech operating system companies (Microsoft, Apple, and Google) have pushed -- with increasing intensity -- to lock down what software users are allowed to run on their computers.
Increasingly restrictive "application signing" systems, and the removal of "features" which allowed non-signed applications to run, have been a stated goal of all three corporations.
All in the name of a war on, what Big Tech has termed, "Sideloading".
What is "Sideloading", you ask?
"Sideloading" is most simply defined as "The act of installing software on a real computer." And Apple, Google, & Microsoft are determined to stop people from doing that.
These companies haven't exactly been quiet about their goal to stop people from installing software on their computers (outside of approved, heavily restrictive mechanisms). Back in 2021, Apple published a whitepaper entitled "Building a Trusted Ecosystem for Millions of Apps - A threat analysis of sideloading".
That's right. Apple considers you having the freedom to install whatever software you want on the computer you own -- something every real computer (including those made by Apple) have done since the dawn of Personal Computing -- to be a "threat".
With macOS 15.1, Apple is taking significant steps to neutralize that "threat".
No software freedom for you.
As of now -- with macOS 15.1 -- there remains one final way to work around these draconian and artificial restrictions.
To do so requires the complete disabling of "Gatekeeper", the system which verifies downloads and restricts the running of non-signed applications.
This can be done via a fairly simple terminal command run as root:
sudo spctl --master-disable
However, it should be noted that with Apple's ever increasing requirements of application "notarization" -- and increasing reliance on the Mac App Store for software distribution (which ties into Gatekeeper) -- the full disabling of "Gatekeeper" seems likely to cause issues going forward with "Apple approved" methods of installing software.
Likewise, at Apple's current rate of attacks against "sideloading", the ability to turn off Gatekeeper may not be long for this world at all.
While the news, today, is focused on Apple (their fight against the most basic freedoms of computing -- the ability to run software)... both Microsoft and Google have made it clear that they are all in on the war against sideloading.
Case in point: Google is migrating Android software away from "APK" application packages... to the far more restrictive "AAB" application bundles. Microsoft, likewise, is pushing for a reliance on their online store.
So users of Android, ChromeOS, & Windows shouldn't laugh. You're next.
Users of a variety of open source, alternative operating systems (such as Linux, BSDs, and many others), however, can laugh all they want.
Another week, another flurry of weirdness in the Tech world.
The Shows
The Articles
Previous Few Months
Reminder: Check out Lunduke.com for all the handy URLS. Podcast RSS feeds, contact info, direct links to some of the big shows and articles and a bunch of other goodies. And be sure to subscribe to The Lunduke Journal to help support the work... and make sure you don't miss out on anything.