It's like I've stated before a number of times, the TX of old times would rather flop entirely than release stuff they didn't write themselves.
Each time a new SX OS update is released I decrypt and analyze it pinpointing hidden changes. However, no one to this date has independently confirmed or refuted my claims despite the tools for analysis being public. Instead, people either go blindly against or in favor of what they prefer.
I understand that not everyone has the skills, time or patience, but independent thinking and self-driven research is crucial. Words are cheap but dangerous and it feels that more and more people prefer to focus on "internet wars" than to actually think or act for themselves.
I worked with the prior owner of xecuter (Paul)for nearly ten years before he took action in the Xbox 360 scene that I thought was unethical that caused me to become a whistleblower and damaged relationships with security researchers that I have great respect for.
But frankly it was the only thing he ever did that was suspect and even then it was not stealing others work merely licensing privately engineered software when no hardware solution was available and this software solution had historically been provided for free to the community.
Point being that the old xecuter *never* stole others work and used the literal millions of dollars made in profits from hardware sales to funnel back into the community in the form of continued research on reverse engineering new security and was extremely generous and helping me personally giveaway well over $10,000 worth of free xecuter products to the community with no strings attached. And that was just me. There were others in the community that also had good relationships and leveraged them to do good community work as well.
This should highlight the stark difference between xecuter today under new ownership versus Paul. It should be noted that none of the engineers today are any of the people that previously worked for Paul.
You're ultimately correct Mike about the tribalism within humanity and every community. I studied psychology and sociology and the commonly exhibited behaviors of humans fascinate me. The thing to understand is that decisions become ingrained in our neurology. when alcoholics decide to become sober or hyper-religious decide to become atheist... The thing that is in common is that most peoples brains reinforce those decisions and overtime they become deeply ingrained.
So for those people who buy xecuter products they don't want to be made to feel a fool so they fight really hard against people who lash out against them. and those who are big community supporters and proponents of free and open source software will do the opposite.
People will continue to cheerlead and march off the cliff because it's within human nature to do so.
this is why I have the utmost respect for individuals who are willing to change their minds based on new evidence. It's something that is so seriously lacking in today's society. I have personally changed religions and changed socio-political beliefs many times as I became older and learned new things.
It seems that many humans are just incapable of this and will waive the same flag until they die.
Thank you for posting all of your security analysis every update Mike. I don't know about everyone else but I do know that I certainly read it. It cracks me up that I still see dozens of "dur xecuter beat Atmos on 9.1.0! Thay dun steal code!" Here on gbatemp regularly. It just shows how little people understand and how tribal everyone is.
Edit - reading your old posts Mike. Can confirm, yes, new xecuter has nothing to do with the old team. Paul called it quits around 2011 or 2012? Can't recall exactly.
The company was sold to the whoever that gateway owner is ( I forget his name now, don't know too much about him)...and it doesn't surprise me that the ex gateway engineers are the ones doing the work now. I cannot confirm any of that because I don't know these people.
I do know that I reached out to the new owner because he controls the domain and receives the emails that I used to send to Paul at his admin address.
At first he acted like he was Paul and he knew me and I quickly realized it was not the same person. He was playing a game with me trying to pretend that he was the same owner as before to keep up the charade.
When I asked him some simple questions and had basic requests he failed to answer or provide. Paul would have never responded to me like that. We have too much good history between us despite one setback.
