Dev.SN

Linux Security, Red Hat and Systemd Conspiracy

posted by Dopefish on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:30AM   
from the penguins-everywhere dept.

An anonymous coward writes "Former cypherpunk shares his conspiratorial view on Linux security:

Since then, more has happened to reveal the true story here, the depth of which surprised even me. The GTK development story and the systemd debate on Debian revealed much corporate pressure being brought to bear in Linux. [...] Some really startling facts about Red Hat came to light. For me the biggest was the fact that the US military is Red Hat's largest customer:

"When we rolled into Baghdad, we did it using open source," General Justice continued. "It may come as a surprise to many of you, but the U.S. Army is 'the' single largest install base for Red Hat Linux. I'm their largest customer." (2008)

This is pretty much what I had figured. I'm not exactly new to this, and I figured that in some way the military-industrial/corporate/intelligence complex was in control of Red Hat and Linux. [...] But I didn't expect it to be stated so plainly. Any fool should realize that "biggest customer" doesn't mean tallest or widest, it means the most money. In other words, most of Red Hat's money comes from the military and, as a result, they have significant pull in its development. In that respect, the connection between the military and spying agencies, etc. should be obvious.

Next, the FOSDEM: NSA Operation ORCHESTRA Annual Status Report is well worth watching in its entirety (including the Q&A at the end). To me, this turned out to be a road-map detailing how Red Hat is operating on Linux!"

• Who Is The Master That Makes The Grass Green? (Score: 3, Insightful) by gallondr00nk on Thursday February 20 2014, @06:01AM

  by gallondr00nk (392) on Thursday February 20 2014, @06:01AM (#3302)

  It's a koan I always think of whenever I read something like this. Everyone spins their own perception, but with conspiratorial types they often seem to find evidence in *everything*, and they're always on the losing side of a deep oppressive narrative.

  Just think of David Icke and reptiles, Alex Jones and the Illuminati and so on.

  I havn't developed cryptography, so I can't automatically say he's full of shit or not. I've got no doubt that there is plenty of spookery involved in that field, but that doesn't automatically mean they have complete authority over every decision made. It doesn't mean they control everything. Likewise, the US military using RedHat doesn't mean they control it either.

  It always involves some logical leaping, for example:

  Let's be clear: This is not a new problem. Humans on earth have been enslaved for thousands of years. Governments and banks have always been corrupt and severe. Every form of communication, even something as simple as a typewriter or printing press, has come under constraints and control designed ultimately to control people. It's that simple.

  From mostly verifiable meddling in crypto standards to the complete enslavement of the human race for millenia.

  I try not to shit on peoples beliefs, since mine are as arbitrary as theirs. That said, I have to wonder about the value of creating a belief system where you are a constantly persecuted victim of a global conspiracy. Even if you're *right*, and it's impossible to properly verify that, what good does it do you?

  Kudos to him for developing SpaceFM, though. It's a wonderful file manager, and I'd recommend trying it.

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