{"id":7796,"date":"2015-03-03T10:30:52","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T15:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/?p=7796"},"modified":"2020-02-26T18:53:12","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T16:53:12","slug":"mobile-third-os-and-superfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/mobile-third-os-and-superfish\/7796\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Mobile&#8217;s Third OS: Cyanogen, Superfish and Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The latest privacy-related kerfuffle, involving Lenovo, who thought it was a great idea to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/lenovo-pc-with-adware-superfish-preinstalled\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pre-install some very nasty adware with gaping security holes<\/a>, was like a blast from the past. Once again, the openness of traditional desktop OSes to third-party tinkering leaves your average consumer unprotected. Despite the world of consumer computing drifting towards more secure-by-design mobile platforms, the traditional \u201copen vs. secure\u201d debate still bears a lot of relevance.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/103\/2015\/02\/06041238\/third-mobile-os.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7801\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/103\/2015\/02\/06041238\/third-mobile-os.jpg\" alt=\"Searching for Mobile's Third OS: Cyanogen, Superfish and Everything\" width=\"1000\" height=\"780\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Undeterred by the laughable size and non-existent progress of the Windows Phone install base, mobile armchair analysts around the world have recently reignited talks of a third mobile alternative, this time in a more open forum. Really, no \u201cthird option\u201d conversation these days fails to mention the need for some vaguely defined \u201ctrue openness\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Some of those people happen to be actual businessmen, and one of them is the CEO of Cyanogen, Kirt McMaster. <a href=\"http:\/\/recode.net\/2015\/02\/09\/cyanogen-tapping-tech-giants-to-build-war-chest-for-a-non-google-android\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">According to Re\/code<\/a>, he\u2019s been making rounds in the Valley and up north, building a war chest to wrestle the freedom of Android from the evil hands of Google. One of the investors is Microsoft, whose own third alternative efforts are traditionally rather closed-source.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cyanogen Tapping Tech Giants to Build War Chest for a Non-Google Android <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/Kb5Bu7UvYO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">http:\/\/t.co\/Kb5Bu7UvYO<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/inafried?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">@InaFried<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Recode (@Recode) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Recode\/status\/564808675789774849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">February 9, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Recent moves by Google to protect its costly mobile efforts from shameless piggybacking by non-contributing parties have discouraged and disappointed many businesses looking to grab a slice of the swiftly growing mobile market, to the point where they would file actual complaints with anti-trust authorities.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/cyanogenone\/status\/469068774167965696<\/p>\n<p>Their efforts are often accompanied by a suitable PR narrative, calling every honest nerd to arms to protect the sacred Android from its evil stepfather, a soulless corporate behemoth from Mountain View.<\/p>\n<p>However, yet again, we need singer Meja to remind us that it\u2019s all \u2019bout the money.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YcXMhwF4EtQ?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>To help build my case here I\u2019d like to dip into my personal experience from the previous personal computing era: about 10 years ago, while at university I used to supplement my meager income by fixing other people\u2019s PCs. Tinkering with crappy Chinese motherboards and pirated copies of Windows, I would, every once in a while, earn actual money, and occasionally, a share of a true work of culinary art.<\/p>\n<p>That money wasn\u2019t easy though as some crappy cases would pin me down for a whole day, morning to late night. There\u2019s one thing that 95% of those computers had in common: their gullible users would disregard a lot of warnings and say yes to a lot of prompts when installing software or simply browsing the Internet. This is how their systems ended up overpowered and chocked by a lot of crapware and 11 toolbars on top of that.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My big fat adware cleaning (or why it's difficult to remove adware from your PC) \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/LGtUqlKFgL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">http:\/\/t.co\/LGtUqlKFgL<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/wnSskYlXh2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/wnSskYlXh2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 KasperskyUK (@kasperskyuk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kasperskyuk\/status\/562298359361576960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">February 2, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Some of those laptops and ready-made PCs were like that from the start since the manufacturers carefully preloaded them with trial bloatware, making extra money. Remember how it used to cost an extra $50 just to get a Sony VAIO laptop with a clean copy of Windows? Still stings.<\/p>\n<p>These memories came back as soon as I heard <a href=\"http:\/\/a16z.com\/2015\/02\/06\/third-mobile-os-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the episode of a16z podcast<\/a> where McMaster argued the world was in dire need of, right, a third major mobile OS. Moreover, his point was that, unlike iOS and [less and less] Android, this potential third OS must be completely open to third party developers, and they must be able to enjoy, haha, complete freedom of expression. \u2018After all, McMaster points out, the current state of affairs where Apple and Google control everything significant is exactly why Amazon and Facebook tried to fork\u00a0Android, so they could express themselves better.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/zalzally\/status\/563880148651372544<\/p>\n<p>Well, taking my bloatware-fighting experience into account, the real reason they did it was because they were missing the \u201copenness\u201d of Windows XP. They want the opportunity to shove their \u2013 and other companies\u2019 \u2013 products in our collective face, to be able to fill our mobile phones with the same obtrusive dirt that\u2019ll help some guys make another buck or two in the era of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Attention_economy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">attention economy<\/a>. Campaigning for the perceived openness, McMaster is essentially paving the way for those who weren\u2019t innovative or focused enough to come up with a decent, attractive mobile platform and\u00a0ride into the lucrative land of ad profits.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, hail to the walled gardens on this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to Mobile OSes, every 3rd option conversation these days mentions the need for some \u201ctrue openness\u201d. But do we really need this kind of openness?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":544,"featured_media":7800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2670],"tags":[572,105,989,990,22,979,423,991,996,992,43,914,589,980],"class_list":{"0":"post-7796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-threats","9":"tag-adware","10":"tag-android","11":"tag-cyanogen","12":"tag-cyanogenmod","13":"tag-google","14":"tag-lenovo","15":"tag-mobile-devices","16":"tag-mobile-os","17":"tag-mwc2015","18":"tag-openness","19":"tag-privacy","20":"tag-private-data","21":"tag-ssl","22":"tag-superfish"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/mobile-third-os-and-superfish\/7796\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/mobile-third-os-and-superfish\/5191\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/mobile-third-os-and-superfish\/5511\/"},{"hreflang":"ru","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.ru\/blog\/mobile-third-os-and-superfish\/7039\/"},{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/mobile-third-os-and-superfish\/7796\/"},{"hreflang":"ja","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.co.jp\/mobile-third-os-and-superfish\/6982\/"},{"hreflang":"ru-kz","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.kz\/mobile-third-os-and-superfish\/7039\/"},{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/mobile-third-os-and-superfish\/7796\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/tag\/adware\/","name":"Adware"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26491,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7796\/revisions\/26491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}