I have a physical CD of Ubuntu 6.10, back then they were distributing those over the mail and a friend of mine ordered some and gave me. I still keep it.

http://wiki.osll.ru/doku.php/etc:users:jcmvbkbc:linux-xtensa:esp32s3 according to this it can run with some limitations.

Yes, sorry, my bad. Plus that’s not really beginner friendly distro

Actually ESP32-S3 will be even cheaper than this one. They sell for around 5-6 $ but they are very limited in what they can do.

Raspberry Pi Zero second hand. Probably you can score something for less than 10 bucks.

You can try NixOS, there you can declaratively create users even set their passwords by providing the hash of their pass. It can also set the config of all your apps and have different sets of apps installed and configured depending on certain conditions.

Fair point, and I am happy that we can engage in a civilized conversation without turning toxic. So kudos for that and for your openness.

Regarding the issue of the radio silence. It might seem odd to you, but you should also understand that sometimes when you are a solo developer you need to prioritise tasks and define what is more important. Whether it is the continued development of the project and bringing new features to the table or answering the security concerns of a handful of people. He said that addressing this problem is rather complicated and time consuming and perhaps he was procrastinating on that just because he didn’t want to deal or spend time on this issue.

My point is that it is better late than never and let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Because I would rather believe in the inherent good nature of people than suspect everyone of ill intentions.

My problem is that a lot of people are giving a lot of shit to open source developers, who are creating great software in their free time.

Instead of enjoying their free time, they give a lot of it to the community, and then they get accused of wrong doings if the quality of their code isn’t at enterprise level. The problem is that people are being toxic to them and this makes them less likely to continue doing that. I am trying to give credit as I know how hard it is to build and support some software and I want the open source community to thrive and not turn into a toxic cesspool.

Jia Tan was a big warning for everyone, I admit, but if you look at the big picture he was a single person in a sea of open source projects and honestly speaking if we are talking of state sponsored attacks, I would say that big corporations like Cisco, Fortinet, etc. would be more of a target than small open source projects. I just wish we could give the guy some credit for all his work and at least let him prove that those blobs are harmless.

I also think a big part of your qualms is the fact that he is Chinese and you are less likely to trust because of your bias.

The guy is trying to address the issue and he is building this in his free time. Give him some credit at least, I am sure this is consuming a lot of his free time.

I personally find this Ventoy an amazing piece of software and he also seems to be willing to address the issue and be more transparent in the future which is also commendable.