Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!

Daniel Phillips
2003-04-25T14:24:05Z

On Friday 25 April 2003 01:15, Werner Almesberger wrote:
> Daniel Phillips wrote:
> > Open source + Linux + DRM could be used to solve the Quake client-side
> > cheating problem:
>
> Yes, but in return you'd be excluded from playing Quake unless
> you're running one of those signed kernels or modules.
>
> So, if I, say, want to test some TCP fix, new VM feature, file
> system improvement, etc., none of the applications that rely on
> DRM would work. This doesn't only affect developers, but also
> their potential testers.

Yes, Ick. You might see some kind of Linux-Trusted-Quake club rise up, with
the specific goal of running cheatless deathmatches, but we are getting very
far from reality here.

To get cheatless online gaming, you would have to necessarily give up a lot
of flexibility. I imagine the likelihood of people running completely
separate DRM Linux boxes, just to participate in DRM-controlled online games,
is not high. Only when if you are faced with absolute necessity of running
DRM, are you actually going to do it by choice. There's going to be a whole
pile of new ways for computers to fail to work too, because of this. Then
there's the certainty that there will be exploits - the whole concept is
inherently fragile, there are just too many parts involved. From a security
point of view, we would end up worse off than without it, given a newfound
false sense of security.

So, just call all of the above a valiant effort on my part to find something
good about this. Hopefully, after a few years of silliness and much wasted
effort, it will all fade away like copy-protected floppy disks.

Regards,

Daniel