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So you think that disallowing access to word processor files to zip and unzip, or backup utilities, or ... is a perfectly reasonable way of doing things?

Because that's what we do on the web. Every app only has access to it's own files and 10 or so standard clipboard formats (and ONLY through the clipboard).



Having a portal that dictates file access would be a perfectly reasonable way of doing things, and that's the direction that Flatpak security is at least starting to move in.

There are security models that allow sharing files that don't give direct access to the entire filesystem. A word processor might need access to my Documents folder, but I might choose not to give it access to anything outside of that folder. Or I might choose to tell it it's been given access to a Documents folder, but really it has access to a VFS mount that is a composite of several folders inside of Documents including some shared folders outside of Documents.

This kind of "portal" idea is incidentally also what browser manufacturers are considering as they start to explore offering native file access[0] (although this is obviously an area that in browsers needs to be approached with a lot of caution). I don't think Google's proposal is the best way to handle this, I think it could be better. But it's still better than what's happening on desktops with native apps.

[0]: https://web.dev/file-system-access/




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