johnx5c

F-Droid demands more trust but it is also infinitely more trustworthy than the Play store. It looks like things can be improved (a lot) and I hope it does. F-Droid provides an invaluable service to those who value privacy and open source with very few volunteers.

> the telemetry can be disabled in settings

I searched and could not find it anywhere (v0.2.3).

> Windows 10 is such a user hostile OS

That's a bit ironic. Microsoft is only trying desperately to do what Google has already succeeded at with ChromeOS - an OS with no browser choice designed solely to funnel user data to them for data mining and to promote their own services. At least Google are up front about it while Microsoft is trying to dark-pattern their way to the same position.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm curious how changes in graphical user interfaces of programs and operating systems over the years have impacted your workflows. Do you develop on Windows or the command line?

Thanks for the recommendation.

I'm looking at Talon at the moment but I'm disappointed that it has no clear way to opt out of user metrics and the first thing it does on launch is download blobs from the internet without explanation. It's not clear if it even can work offline at all. For a program that listens to everything you say that is a bit disconcerting (especially in the context of sensitive work projects). I'd like to just pay for something and never have it connect online, bar manual updates.

Thanks, that looks interesting. I'll try it out.

On a related note, does anyone have suggestions for an engineer who will have to use his hands less and less over time?

I would love to work in a similar company but I can't see Rust challenging C any time soon with so few Rust developers available and no functional safety compiler on the market.

Aside from the immaturity of the talent pool and tooling I mentioned in another comment, I think the embedded domain is incredibility slow to change.

My team have in the last decade spearheaded initiatives like adopting Agile, C++ (subset) use, Git (as opposed to SVN/proprietary) and extensive use of modern code hosting and CIs and we've met with a lot of resistance in our company (and those we work with). I've also interviewed lots of experienced embedded engineers, e.g. automotive, who have never heard of Agile or used Git.

I think it's a fear of change (risk) and also that the embedded engineering domain is so closely tied to hardware development, which is even slower to change.

It's a combination of things. The first is the lack of expertise in existing companies and lack of available hires. Rust is new and has a steep learning curve. I work in a company with 7k+ engineers. Our Rust interest group has less than 20 members and most are beginners. I have never seen Rust mentioned on CVs even once when hiring for Embedded positions.

The second reason is lack of tooling - specifically Functional Safety toolchains that can be used for ISO26262 projects. There are plans by Ferrous to develop one, but it will take years to gain any adoptions [1].

[1] https://ferrous-systems.com/ferrocene/

Embedded systems: Rust, checked C and other languages or methodologies designed to act as a "safer" alternative to C will see little real impact in the near to medium term future. Code running on microprocessors in medical, industrial and automotive devices will continue to be C99 (at best) for a very very long time.

That's really absurd. People make food for friends and build everything from furniture to vehicles for fun in their garages without complying with any professional standards or laws all the time. How many people on Hackaday or any DIY site have ISO compliant or OSHA inspected labs? Existing regulations are not stopping the maker space scene.

Every company developing medical and automotive software for production use (ISO 262652 etc).

One is a developer putting his reputation on the line for a free open-source product he has put hundreds of hours of work into. The other is a faceless trillion dollar advertising company operated mostly via black-box Machine Learning with a very public history of incorrectly censoring users and terminating accounts. I know who I would tend to trust.

While that's true, products from Telegram, Cisco, Dell etc etc are targeted by nation states with infinite budgets who employ the best coders and cryptographers in the world. They have track records of selling bogus/backdoored products via fake companies, hacking companies to plant malware, planting/bribing employees etc. That changes the balance pf probabilities between stupidity and malice a lot for me.

Is it possible to root and install locally via a local network or USB key so I don't have to connect my TV to the internet?