Appelbaum on hardware on debian

This goes for pretty much everyone in most fields. It is wise to never put anyone on a pedestal but merely look for inspiration from the good things they do.

It is somewhat like the advice that one should never meet their idols as will lead to disappointment when the flaws are presented.

> Personally I think this looks bad on Applebaum. I've tried to refrain
> from criticizing him over it for a variety of reasons. One I didn't
> actually know if he really did take money from Todd and provide
> advisement early on.. but even if he did I'm not sure thats a crime in
> my book to begin with.

Thanks for that feedback. I'd like to know more about why Appelbaum
would connect himself with Purism. If there's any more you can share,
I'm sure we'd love to read it.

I have no knowledge of Appelbaum prior to the Snowden revelations. My
understanding of Appelbaum's work is scarce, but as I understand it
Snowden trusts him, and he worked with Snowden to get journalists copies
of these top secret documents for review and publication. I don't know
if Appelbaum calls himself a journalist or not, but I am not trying to
exclude him from being one. In any event, I'm very grateful to all the
leakers and everyone who worked with them. I've benefited greatly from
their disclosures because I no longer have to explain to friends and
family what is theoretically possible in an attempt to get them to
believe their privacy is at risk and mass surveillance is real. I now
have documents nobody has doubted the veracity of to point to and say
"this is what they've already done".

Given this vague understanding of what Appelbaum might have done (I
leave plenty of room realizing I could be wrong in all of this), I
figure his main value in being listed as an advisor to Purism is
"lend[ing] credibility" as you said (after all, why tell the public he's
advising Purism if his advice is really all Purism needs from him?
Plenty of contractors work for organizations offering valued advice and
never get credit on the organization's website). Appelbaum could also
use his explanatory skill to endorse Purism (something I've not
seen/heard Appelbaum do; maybe that's because I'm not seeing the right
talks?). I find this troublesome given how Purism can't live up to their
promises.

Ordinarily, I'd ask about this of Appelbaum himself but I don't have an
email address for him.

If you have documentation on Appelbaum's wrongdoings, you should write them. Appelbaum is hard on others and he must expect the same treatment. I have heard him talk about the german party linke in what could be positive terms. Linke has members from the ddr sed party. Members who have not distanced themselves from the ddr dictatorship. Appelbaum should know better and probably does. About what he makes public about computers, several times I have seen it verified by other tech people. I have no skills to verify his pieces of information.

Appelbaum doing something for purism for money, I have seen no documentation for that, I regard unlikely. If he wants to be devious, he probably have lots of more well paid options. Like many others, I find his purism involvement strange. He should know better.

This strongly suggests you have javascript enabled.

I do. The JavaScript on the Trisquel website is free software.