Comment by nitwit005

1 day ago

Some people will hurt themselves if given dangerous tools, but if you take all the dangerous items out of the tool shop, there won't be any tools left.

Microsoft seems to feel constant pressure to dumb Windows down, but if you look at the reasons people state when switching to Linux, control is a frequent theme. People want the dangerous power tools.

Tool manufacturers include all kinds of annoying safety devices to attempt to prevent injury, or at least to give them some cover in a lawsuit.

Table saw blade guards and riving knives are an ironic example here: I've yet to hear a story of a woodworker that lost a finger on a table saw that wouldn't have been able to avoid that injury if they kept one of those safety devices on the saw. Everyone thinks the annoyance isn't worth it, since they are an 'expert', yet it happens frequently.

  • Right, but none of those safety devices invalidate the underlying purpose of the tools. Disk encryption is used, for many people, for privacy. Uploading the keys to Microsoft defeats a lot of that.

    If you bought a table saw and the "safety device" is that it won't run, I would imagine you'd be pissed too.

  • Genuine safety requires you give people literal kids toys. Those tools were made less dangerous, not safe.