[Tor-BSD] Tor Messenger

[George Rosamond]

If you haven't heard, there was a recent beta release of Tor Messenger
(https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-messenger-beta-chat-over-tor-easily/

There is more movement towards reproducible builds but obviously for
those trying to port Tor Messenger, source is necessary, and it is
located on the Tor gitweb at
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-messenger-build.git/tree/.

Re: reproducible builds, I really liked tedu@'s piece in September if
anyone didn't see it:

http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/reproducible-builds-are-a-waste-of-time

This very much reflects discussions Attila and I have been having, even
though he is clearly and admittedly being polemical.  There's a
lobste.rs thread in the post which is worth reading.

I followed some of the chatter about Tor Messenger on the Tor-talk list.
 If you read the README on the gitweb, it seems that it's a Docker-based
solution.

I was looking at what it would take to port it, and all went black. I
noted recently on this list another trend which worries me in the PETs
scene: this notion that some level of virtualization is a security
enhancement.  I ranted already about it before, so don't worry, I won't
repeat my rant.

It's one thing to have the argument among people developing solution, a
discussion in which I know where I stand. The thing that really bothers
me is that non-technical people in PETs-land see it as an elixir of
sorts for anonymity and security, which is really scary. If developers
make mistakes and do stupid things all the time, imagine the potential
consequences of end-users thinking a virtualized solution is more secure
on principle.

</gulp>

g