thingexplainer

> I'm sure you can find a way to spear phish somebody and send them a Linux ELF binary that they will then execute, but accomplishing that is considerably harder than on Windows/OSX/Android/iOS.

I'm afraid people are just as foolable and code just as executable on Debian as on any other platform. Additionally, vulnerabilities on Android are likely exploitable on Debian.

You will not survive an attack from a state adversary because you used Qubes, or OpenBSD, and certainly not TAILS (which is not particularly secure, just well integrated with Tor). You will survive because you are familiar with your tools of choice and you know how to secure them.

As a final note, if you're being targeted by a nation state, getting an pre-owned ThinkPad will probably result in getting a pre-0wn3d ThinkPad.

Your comment reminds of me the time my friend wanted to build something with a half-duplex radio, and rather than figure out how to get the crappy Arduino library to switch from receive to transmit, they wrote the message & a flag to the EEPROM, overflowed the watchdog timer, and (upon reading the flag after reset) brought the radio up in transmit mode.

Actually, this comment has _less_ information than the first one. :)

If someone decides to share some information on HN, it isn't their responsibility to provide a robust argument and complete set of citations. If you'd like them to you're free to ask politely, or to volunteer your own (or even better, provide counterpoints). But a terse summary of the HN rules is, "add meaningfully to the conversation." The individual you're berating added context that they felt was missing from the original article; this certainly qualifies.

The burden of accessing the veracity of the information lies on you. If they provide you with citations, then they're generously offering you a shortcut. If you're having a hard time finding support for their claims, then ask them for a pointer in the right direction. But if you haven't looked at all, then you should decide if this question is worth your time to research, and act accordingly, rather than asking other people to do the legwork for you.

They're concerned Holmes will commit suicide.