Ask Lemmy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReiserFS

Reiser was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Nina Reiser

There's such different views on life that I don't think its possible to get software designed close to what you or I believe in.

If the source is open, the code is viewable. So yes I think I can trust, at least the code.

Also there's a saying "trust but verify". So actually check to see if the binaries your getting actually behave the way you think.

I moved off of lemmy because I didn't want to use software made by a tankie, so no.

Only if they specifically seem fascist, because that's the one political group that likes to know everything you do and censor any dissenting opinion.

I mean... I used reiserFS for years and that guy killed his wife, I'm not too keen on that.

I guess its fine as long as its not actively malicious code, its not like I'm letting them into my brain.

On that though, I find it unlikely someone who differs from me politically would have the same priorities, and as such their projects are much less likely to show up on my radar.

Edit: spelling correction, Autocorrupt, ykwim?

Yes.

Whether you'd boycott it is another thing.

I'd see it as a seal of quality if the developer is a crank.

I've installed thousands of programs on my systems over the past 30 years. Closed source, open source, you name it. Never had a single problem.

Trusting software is such an overblown hangup that people have. Even if it bites me in the ass someday, so what? I'll roll back, reformat, do whatever I have to do. It'll have been worth it.

Is the political disagreement around surveillance or something related?

Not when it comes to anything important like work or other sensitive data.

If I know someone's political affiliation prior to using their software I'll likely find an alternative if their views are harmful.

for me, it generally boils down to "show me the work, then i decide".

some works are more influenced by politics like art pieces and written works. some, like architecture, plumbing and network stacks, much less so.

in this case, even if you don't know code but can be a good appraiser of political taint then you can decide on your own what to endorse or not.

I can't really apply "you don't understand the code yourself" because I do.

So I do check the code if it's something critical, but otherwise don't bother. For example the Lemmy server I'm running I didn't really check much because it can't really do any harm to me.

But if I was running Lemmy somewhere on my home network, I'd either isolate it or thoroughly check it (but probably just isolate it from the rest of the network and put it in a VM, nobody's got the time to read other people's source code).

Since you're asking specifically for "on my machine" I usually put stuff I don't fully trust in a VM.

No. Fuck that guy.

open source is safe.

even non-technical people can learn how to look at issues on Github (or wherever the code is kept).

it's like restaurant reviews: if there are dozens of people saying they got malicious food, then you have reason to be careful, even if you don't understand why the food is malicious.

caveat: if the code is open source but no one has had time to review it, it's potentially dangerous even if there are no issues yet. it takes time for people to review the code. and there should be multiple reviewers; there's always the chance that a single malicious developer has created multiple github users. Time is on your side here.