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Comment by cyberpunk | Hacker News Reader

Theyre whining about having to use Microsoft Authenticator.

I get it, microsoft sucks. But they’re almost certainly using android or iPhones and so already use a bunch of proprietary software.

What a stupid hill to die on.

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The emails mention students only using FOSS. And while they are the minority, their point of view is reasonable. Studying should not involve handing over one’s data to MS or any other big tech corp without good reason.

Yeah. I’m sure none of them have any device capable of watching Netflix or have a gmail address..

To me this looks like it’s about principle of not being denied education if you do not consent to big corp EULAs.

Foreign big corp EULAs.

When I was a student last, I was using an Ubuntu laptop, and an android phone that was no longer receiving updates, so couldn't run any of the new versions of the apps required to do so many things.

I had a Debian and a firefoxOS!

Nowadays I'm a sellout and traded liberty for convenience (and deserve neither, paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin), but I used to fight the FOSS fight. My first two jobs were on Agpl/gplv3/gplv2 products!

Did anyone force you to use either of those to complete your education? No? What's your point again?

Heh, ironic that a user named cyberpunk is defending the corporate default.

Advocating for change is not invalidated by hypocritical details. Don't be that guy.

I think it's a stupid hill for the university to die on.

You are wrong, sir. Seems like some of these students use Android ROMs without Google Services...and probably without any proprietary software.

Some of us don't use any proprietary OS. What are we supposed to do?

I work for a uni which is rolling out the MS modern auth - we have a FIDO2 option (Yubikeys I guess) for contentious objectors to the Authenticator apps.

Do you hand out the keys for free? If not you are still punishing people who have the moral high ground.

No, they're not using an iPhone or an Android.

In the article the student mentions that they're using "a PinePhone running PostmarketOS"

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