>On Tue, 7 Jul 2026 16:04:07 +0000
>Michael Ackermann via Tinycc-devel <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On 2026-07-07 17:14, [email protected] wrote:
> > VSOBFS _creates_ a fully functional Minix operating system instance
> > (a disk image), including C compilers, among others tinycc for C99.
> 
> Allright. But what are the requirements to yield such a Minix system
> from source? That's related to the "circular dependency" i was
> referring to, [...]

Hi, long-time lurker here. I'm replying because you two seem to be
chasing each other's tails a lot, apparently having fallen to the
"silver-bullet" fallacy of information security. The fallacy states "if
you just do this one weird and hard thing, you will have solved
information security". In your case, the one weird and hard thing is
developing a clean software package to run, where by "clean" we merely
mean it's binary form doesn't have more bugs and vulnerabilities than
it's source code form. Or at the very least, that none of the
additional bugs and vulnerabilities were intentionally introduced by a
third party.

Which is a distressingly low standard, and one that paradoxically
ignores The Application. We all know The Application is greater than
The Operating System, meaning your email client software is greater and
more important than your compiler - because you have the compiler in
order to produce the email client. It's the email client that you want
and use, and the complier is merely the means to an end.

So what happens if you run a perfectly "clean" and 100% certified
implant-free email client on a CPU with a backdoor? And in the course
of this running, you order the software to render an image, during the
course of which the 100% clean email software orders the CPU to
memcpy() some block. And the CPU does so, but the block contains a
knock-knock sequence which puts the CPU into a different mode of
operation where it basically turns against you?

Oh, and you can't use another CPU because government regulation
requires you to "prove your age" to the ISP and to do this you have to
have a computer with a TPM which cryptographically verifies the CPU,
among other things, to the government^W^H ISP, meaning your information
security suddenly has a geopolitical dimension to it.

You obviously need a clean compiler for information security, but
please don't get hung up, either of you, on your preferred solution to
that component of the overall information security challenge. Just
chill, and start organizing IRL.

-- 
Svi moji e-mailovi su kriptografski potpisani. Proverite ih.
All of my e-mails are cryptographically signed. Verify them.
--
You don't need an AI for a robot uprising.
Humans will do just fine.
--

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