Was trying to add some characterization to my 'lives in Redmond in an old library' Troll Mage and decided that he should be without any wireless connections; no PAN, no phone nowt. The other players where a bit 'huh' but I told them he simply dislikes being on-line (got Flaws in sensitive system).

Now this was fine in darkest Redmond as few places have a working hook up anyway... but we've just had to visit the other side of Touristville and things got a little mad when the semi-working devices the other had suddenly sprung into life and *stuff* started popping up on their screens/shades/etc.

Now my question is- if we have to stay in a connected area for a while will my character being offline be a problem in the ever connected world? Will he be more of a target if he comes up as offline?

Lone Star and other security outfits may feel a bit nervous about you because your SIN cannot be verified. Downtown Seattle is a definite no-no as that area expects all people to be broadcasting their ID from the Commlinks. The team not having a way to call you could also pose difficulties in team communication. I would suggest your character get a Commlink, but with no accessories. So you don't go VR and you don't use AR, which is still pretty unusual in 2070, but at least the team will be able to get ahold of you when the don't know where you are, and security companies won't freak out because you have no identity.

I would think that since a NEW Meta Link commlink and a new copy of Vector Xim costs only 300 then your troll should at least have that. Hell you might even ask your GM if he can get a Meta Link with the 2070 version of Linux. Sure you can't get the full matrix experience*, but with your troll.... he DOESN'T want to!

I know with my Chaos Mage, he's almost the exact opposite from your troll mage. He has a soft maxed (Response 5 / Signal 5) commlink and running Firewall 6, Encrypt 6 (both optimized and ergonomic), & Iris Anti-Virus (ergonomic) constantly. I also clustered all my other 'ware so I have a Response 4 (all my ware is Alpha Ware) sub node that I run Rating 6 Lie Detection and Empathy (both optimized to run on the node) on constantly.

----------------------------------------------

* = Unwired says that the Open Source community can't get the matrix specifications because of the corps... to which I throw the bullshit flag. Software and specifications can be cracked if there is enough people who want it cracked. Take a look at WINE HQ and see what some Linux hackers have done.

You may wish to refer to the sidebar on p. 210 SR4. Example #3

What do you think Red Cap(Hat) (Li)Nix is?

Isn't there something in Runner's Companion about staying off the grid? Like on or around p. 22?

For the record, if you really don't want a commlink, you can always just have an RFID tag projecting your SIN, though then you would have trouble doing things like buying stuff at stores. Most places in downtown wouldn't accept certified cred.

Except the system rating sucks and the firewall is a joke. You would think a 2070 version of Linux would be a little better...

Hmmm...

This is a question that keeps coming up, and I keep wondering if people have actually stopped to think about how they live their own lives.

First off, yes, there are basic setting concerns. You need your SIN to be readable... but the RFID tag not a bad suggestion there from TheOOB. I can't see why it wouldn't work, and it would actually make sense for people too poor to even keep a Meta Link (way below poverty line kind of thing).

After that, we're looking at plain old practicality.
Could you, today, give up the following?:
Your portable music player (consider that most of your music probably won't play without a net connection in 2070, thanks to invasive DRM. It's already happening with games platforms like Steam, and with a lot of online music services)
Your cell phone
Your laptop computer
Your wireless internet
Your credit and debit cards

That's pretty hefty. I know I'd be completely screwed without the wireless connection on my laptop. People ask why you can't just use cables, but let's be honest here, even today cables suck, big time. Being able to sit down and work, anywhere, with net access is amazing.
Just being able to open a Google window and look up anything at the click of a button, no matter where I'm working, completely changes how I work.
What about giving up your cell phone? How much do you take for granted the idea that people can contact you anywhere, and that you can contact other people from anywhere. How often do you just assume that you'll be able to call a taxi? Or that if you can't find a place you can call up and ask for directions? When you go out shopping with a friend do you ever agree to meet up later, and simply hand-wave the details with "I'll call you"? This is a technology that our whole society is basically dependant on.
And finally you're talking about walking around with an easy means of paying for your stuff. Even if a place does accept certified cred, that's the equivalent of walking around with nothing but cash in your pocket. How much do you risk taking with you? Are you going to have to drive to the bank as soon as you need to pay for something big? I'd also expect that, in something of a reversal, certified cred would only be valid for large purchases. More like writing a check than offering cash. Small "dollars and dimes" stuff, everyone would expect to just deduct from your account automatically, so you'll have a hard time paying for your drinks in a bar or a meal at a cafe, because the staff just don't want to have to mess around with physical exchange. I'd certainly be willing to bet you couldn't get on a bus, given that here in Toronto the drivers don't handle change themselves (you just chuck the money in the box). The 2070 equivalent would be your fare being automatically deducted when you get on the bus.

Why?

I live fine without anything on that list, besides my debit card (which I only recently was given by my bank due to previous checking account screw-ups) beause so few places will actually take a check these days. Although I admit I'd probably want a cellphone if I travelled more, and my wife's laptop is a bit more convenient than working on the desktop (at least I can have a more comfortable chair) but overall I'm preferring the desktop (better sound system, trackball over touchpad). As far as wireless internet goes the destop didn't come with any and I don't even own a portable music player.

around my part of the world mobile phones are the personal line directly to people.

as in, if you call or sms that number you know you will reach that specific person, unlike calling some house number and having to ask.

i know at least one person that hates calling house numbers because he is not sure who will answer...

and i dont recall the last time someone i know used a check to pay rather then a debit card. the banks even have mobile phone based card readers that delivery people or temporary arrangements like concerts use.

and i agree that a rfid tag with sin and account info (for those payments) is probably a nice workaround.

just make sure to have a signal blocking pouch to slip it into when you dont want to be registered somewhere

There about 5 public payphones in Finland anymore and two of those are located in the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Finland has 7 million mobile phones. the population is 5.1 million.

Here in Finland you pay for almost everything by card. Cheques haven't been used in Finland for over 20 years now and can only be cashed in banks. All of our banking happens over the Internet. Bill paying machines are being phased out of use.

The city of Oulu has PANOulu which is a wireless connection which works anywhere in the city centre, university campus, and in most public institutions. It is also an open wireless connection which is free. It has been running since 2001.

While you can get a phonebook and most people still use it as their primary source of information, many of the services provided are all online, including registration to public institutions (like doctor's appointments).

Also most companies have embraced online retail which uses bank certification systems for identification and bill payment. It has been estimated that in 2007 20% of Finland's internal retail sales were conducted online.

this little bit of trivia is neat around here in Montana we are just now having places not reciveing checks or cash(although i think not accepting cash is iffy) for payment mostly there coffee huts or restaurants....

Because the people who program Linux do it for fun and since there are so many people who code for Linux they can catch each others mistakes. It's the opposite thing with Windows. Windows "sucks"* because it's a closed sourced OS and they can use any horrible work around that they want to.

Now fast forward this to 2070 and the Matrix. Collaboration instead of taking days or weeks can happen in hours. Feedback time reduction accelerates code development speed and therefore makes any OS with vast community support (like Linux) improve faster.

------------------------------------------------------------------

* = Windows is great for what it does, it just has the security of a retard. This has been improved in Vista, but compared to Linux, or worse yet OpenBSD, it is still lagging behind.

I just don't really think that the state of today's Linux community (healthy as it may be) would automatically have all that much relevance or bearing on the way things are 60 years in the future, past two complete crashes and the total redesigning of the internet/matrix ... twice.

I did say in my original post about the 2070 version of Linux. I should have said "Linux (or its successor)". I believe that with Hackers the way that they are, they would have their version of Open Source Software. I also would see them making an OS just because they could.

Actually, I stopped carrying cash for eftpos instead about a year ago, but I could go back to it. Other than that, yeah. My phone is typically at home, I don't own a laptop and I run wherever I can possibly get to.

That's probably because Aus is one hell of a lot less wired than America, though.

Incorrect. Windows "sucks" because the defaults are made for ease of use over security. The *nix root/peon architecture is not inherently better and is arguably considerably worse than a graduated security model, hence SELinux and the rest. VAC is a marvelous system that was poorly implemented on the user end of things (because they chose, as a design decision, to make it "annoying" under the assumption that the programmers of user software would start doing things the Right Way in order to minimize the VAC prompts that annoy their users).

Its defaults are less secure than a *nix system; compromises must be made for system usability. I can lock down a Windows box just as tightly as any *nix one; on the server side of things their defaults are actually quite reasonable--you don't find many compromised Windows Server 2003/2008 boxes out there. The security holes in modern NT versions of Windows are largely in the Windows equivalent of userland rather than the kernel, and the security bugs that are in kernel land are relatively obscure and in most cases not remote-accessible exploits.

Not terribly important to the topic at hand, but a common misconception.

Funnily enough, I would have had no problem whatsoever with that statement.

It has nothing to do with what is realistic, and everything to do with game mechanics. Having good programs available for free isn't a good game mechanic... thus SR "hand waves" away Free/Open Source. If you want to have rating 6 programs available for free, go ahead.

Nope I would go by the rule that Open Source Software (except System) can only get to Rating 4 for Free and they would degrade as if they were pirated software. I would say that System can get to Rating 6 but say that you have to pay for it. Call it a bribe, paying the hackers, or whatnot. The reason I would say that an Open Source System can get to 6 is because like Linux today, having your name and your code in the Linux Kernel is a lot more sexy than having your name and code in another version of Solitaire. More talent would be attracted to the Kernel than to other types of software.

Well, there you go. Whatever works for you.

I would also note that in conflicts stylisticly with the cyberpunk theme of Shadowrun. The powers that be (the Megacorps) have a large amount of control on the computer software world. It is, after all, a very profitable buisness to them. This gives them every incentive to take measures to stamp out movements such as the Open Source Movement which will have a measurable impact on their bottom line. Given the means and the ruthlessnes the coporations have been willing to resort to, being a modern day Linus or Stallman in the 6th world would be a very dangerous proposition indeed.

Now this does not mean that home grown software could not exists. But, its wide spread disemination is likely to pose a 'serious health risk' to its authors. Meaning its not likely to happen, at least, not for free.

--

All that said, if you want to include an OSS or FSF movement in your campaigns go ahead! I could imagine a variaty of interesting runs you could run for or against thes foundations if you liked. Maybe the movement still exists, it has just gone underground. Or you could have it be a major player in the 6th world. Fighting the good fight for open source in a closed source world! I imagine that KXCD guy could make some funny comics about this

I don't have any evidence to contradict you, so I will assume that Microsoft finally got it's act together and got Windows Server to actually be worth something.

Right... I've seen Antitrust

Yeah, the modern open source movement has really done a lot to the obttom line of corporations.

Hmm... I haven't, but after a quick google, it does appear it would provide some good material for a potential shadowrun.

Were you being facetious or were you being serious?

A little of both. Some of it has, but the vast bulk of it is people howling about how terrible "micro$oft" is and that apple "$old out" and that they're all going to fall to this awesome operating system and wow isn't Linux killing Leopard/Vista.

Actually, just make it Y open source software is killing x evil corporate empire, hooray for us! and you'll have it.

Yes, it was called Windows 2000. Welcome to this century.

Comlinks are a fairly new technology in 2070, and the protocols of the matrix 2.0 are likewise new, and possibly not entirely declassified yet, which is a pretty tough blow for open source code. With how quickly the technology is advancing (degrading 1 point every month), and the difficulty of patching a program(logic+software (difference between current and normal grade) test with a 2 week interval) that means that many programs without corporate backing will have spotty updates and quickly fade into obscurity, while corporate made programs stay on the bleeding edge until planned obsolescence kicks in. And thats assuming the corps play nice, making their hardware and software work with code not watermarked from a major corp.

Then there was Vista ...

I've not noticed too many problems with 2k and XP but Vista is a resource hog and it's idea of "security" is spamming you into autopilot with pop-ups. I get more blue screens with Vista than 98.
I am not looking forward to Windows 7

The core of the problem is that Windows doesn't do All-In-One well. Ideally, you'd have your Work Box, your Hobby Box, your Gaming Box and your Don't Tell the Ethics Committee box (which you can expect to format and reinstall regularly). It's when you try to make one box do all of the above that Windows craps its pants.

No experience as to whether other OSs are more pants crappage resistant

We could get into an endless debate about what operating systems are good and which ones suck and whether or not Microsoft is an evil corporation, but I think whats important here is that all the megas in shaowrun are evil corps and that most the stuff released to consumers is complete crap that people pay for because they feel they have to.

As you say, in some industries the impact of OSS has been very large. One particular example would be internet servers where Apache has over 50% of the market and IIS remains a distant second. Another would be web-browsers with Firefox closing in on 20% of the market, CVS (and other OSS code repositories), MySQL, and let us not forget Sendmail either. Indeed on the Server side of the world, *nix variants continue to dominate, despite an improvement in microsoft offerings, and Linux has a healthy portion of those *nix systems out there.

But weather or not OSS could make an actual dent in the bottom line of corporations in the 6th world is largely a matter of speculation as it would greatly depend upon the state of software development and networks in 2070. Thre may be factors (such as interoprability) that make its implementation difficult to impossible, or there might not.

However, (and this is an idea I imagine Hagga will like) the development enviroment is likely to be very different. In particular, the large coporate sponsors of OSS would likely not exist in 2070. Its hard to imagine the likes of Renraku, SK, Azetechnology, or any of the mega-corps just giving their source code away for free. Without its major corporate sponsors OSS is unlikely to be in the same position it is today, and those sponsors are unlikely to exist in the future.

---

But all this is a bit to arcane for my games. I would focus on the much more fun possibility Antitrust like game runs (I have got to see that movie). Getting hired by a corp to go track down some open source guy, kill him, and steal his code. OR being hired by said guys rich widow/GF to break into the corporation and steal the source code back and prove their dastardly deeds.

Given the timeline of Shadowrun starts at a very different point in time and technology would the Open Source Community even have got the foothold that they have managed in Real Life? Would the Resource Rush and rise of the early Mega's - probably inc Microsoft- killed the whole thing off?

The reason software works the way it does in Shadowrun is purely because of game balance. SR was built around the very traditional assumption that gear has to cost money, and better gear is more expensive. Which leads to a whole bunch of clunky balance mechanisms when they try to factor in open-source, or even home-cooked software.

For example, the flavor text say evert hacker worth his salt builds his own programs, but the intervals for doing this are so large it would take longer than the average shadowrunner's career to actually build something decent. And the only reason open source software is difficult to obtain and keep updated is because they had to compensate for the fact that it doesn't cost anything - it doesn't work like that at all in the real world.

This is not something exclusive to Shadowrun, either. Most popular science fiction RPGs were written before open source really took off - it's one of those marvels of the future no one could predict because they were too busy imagining laser guns and flying cars .

I think the best way to take these things into account would be to change things to that it's always assumed that hackers use the best software they can get their hands on, and that they didn't pay a dime for it, either because it's cracked, or because it's free to begin with. This may or may not involve some heavy changes in the Matrix rules.

So this thread has given me ideas for my next character. OSS programmer, baby. OSS FOR EVERYONE! BRING DOWN THE MEGA CORPS! VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

the basic stuff can still be used. rather then skill+app, use stat+skill (many do so already).

there could maybe be some kind of limiter based around hardware (a a-list hacker being held back by sub-standard hardware). could be something like there being X cycles available for different tasks. the hacker can allocate those cycles to a task just like loading software right now. the tasks basically being the same as the software, maybe plus firewall.

so if the hacker wants to really slam that IC (a dog-brain task with extra cycles allocated to it to handle its sub-tasks), he can re-allocate cycles from the firewall and maybe stealth tasks to add to the attack task.

yes, that would make him easier to spot by the automated systems, and also leaves him more open for counterattacks, but also gives him a higher chance of taking down that there IC.

a botnet could be a cycle-farm, but at the same time, if its really maxed out its performance, it ups the chance of being detected and closed down by the powers that be.

an AI running a bot net could be really scary in that it could funnel that cycles into running its core being, giving itself a stat bonus dependent on the cycles alocated. but at the same time, doing so basically screams that there is a uber-AI in the matrix, bringing out the heavy guns of the corp court and others.

Sounds to me like the real question is "Can you get away without a fake ID in 2070"? And the answer is a no...

- J.

i suspect the barrens are a option...

I would think if you do it that way with caps as so many do. I would give it a -somthing(base on the level of the program somthing like (l-3)) to you stat+skill for being open souce(as they are never as user frendly as close) but keep the cap the same.

this would get the affect that users could same out of free open souce code but would need to be more skilled to do so.

(seems to fit into real life).

Not in my experience . Even if open source software was universally less user friendly than the closed kind, SR hackers would be precisely the sort of people who would care more about power than user friendlyness.

Besides, my suggestion had the opposite goal - I want it to make no difference whether someone's using an open or closed program. I want them both to be equally effective, and I don't want to penalise shadowrunning hackers for not behaving like good little wageslaves and paying for their software licenses.

user interface then to be the last thing most project work on as such then tend to be less user friendly(as open souce tend to be always ongoing). power user(those with lots of dice) will not know the diffrence and will alow it to be more powerfull(higher cap) without caring that it is less user fendly(less dice).

thats with I was trying to get accross with the rules.

you could also invert this for highly user frendly focus programs lowercap then grade woud sugject but with more dice.
(on this note thinking that you could also up the cap higher then the grade on the other one)

note: I have not read unwired.(background note im a computer programer if that make a diff)

edit: many changes to make it readable