this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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Why shouldn't you be able to install whatever you want? Maybe I'm missing something..
You’re missing that you don’t make the OS, and the OS maker doesn’t have to make a way for you to be able to install whatever you want. Sony doesn’t let you install Switch games on your PS5, do they? Should they be forced to?
No. They can peddle their infinite growth with less people paying more rather than the opposite. This is the way I guess.
Ok so you agree that Sony shouldn’t have to let you install and play anything you want on their console, but Apple needs to be different because…….reasons? Reasons that you can’t articulate.
You missed some sarcasm in there. Once I buy a device, I can wipe it clean, remove any bloat application, load my own code, or side load my friends' shitty home made game. It's my device, not apples'. Especially when the device is like 2k€. Apple is responsible for their firmware, so device must run and work for me when I factory reset it. Factory code must be consumer friendly (In reality it's a tracker and an ad peddler). Loosing guarantee is ok if I phisically modify the device.
You can try to do all that, sure - but Apple don’t have to enable you to do it, and they damn sure well don’t have to write software specifically so you can do it.
It’s your hardware, but you bought it with any restrictions they put on it and you’re under no entitlement for them to remove them.
You are just describing current landscape of corporate greed. So it's my expensive device, running their telemetry and being a subject of their forced updates putting more and more restrictions and subscriptions on it's use while they sell data on the side? All that and I can't play a shitty but popular game on it? Sounds fun. (sarcasm again..) And no, I will not subscribe to the corporate shill mentality so stop trying.
It’s not “corporate greed”. If companies have to make every device of theirs “open source” essentially, and have to make ways for their competitors to be able to run their stuff on the device, and allow people to remove all their companies stuff from their devices, guess what? No one will make devices anymore.
If you don’t like what Apple do, don’t buy Apple devices. You’re not entitled to anything other than the device doing what it says on the box. You do not own the software on it, nor are you entitled to have them give you the keys to their kingdom.
It’s not “corporate shilling” to explain basic concepts around business and how the world works. I didn’t like what Google were doing a few years back so I made the decision to switch to an iPhone and stopped using pretty much all Google services. I voted with my wallet, like you can and should.
You are missing the gene that makes one an apple fanBoi apparently.
I am in the camp that there is a benefit to the managed store. Since moving family members to iOS devices the number of times they have loaded malware or asked me for help installing ANYTHING dropped to zero.
Should techies be able to side load if they want? Sure, should that be a primary install method? No.
There's a lot of very techy people who've never had to do family tech support on this platform.
Yes, the fact that Mum can't accidentally install a shitty browser toolbar is a feature.
There is a benefit. And you can continue using the first-party store if you want. There's no benefit to not being able to use 3rd-party ones to anyone but Apple and their investors.
Nope. No reason that you should pay $1000 for a device and not, at the very least, be able to install compatible software from other sources.
We wouldn't accept this from Microsoft. Could you imagine if this was the norm for DOS or Windows?
Should side loading be discouraged and warned about? Yes. Should it be impossible? Maybe through "parental" controls or MDM, but absolutely not out-of-the-box.
What's more, Windows S Mode proved perfectly that you could offer the "safe" functionality that Apple claim they need to protect their customers, without fucking things up for people who wanted to take responsibility for vetting applications themselves.
This is a sane take, though I personally do generally tend towards understanding and even valuing the walled garden to some degree. But this is what I’ve always felt underneath it, you found the words.
A walled garden without an exit is just a pretty prison.
Monopolies and trusts are never beneficial to anyone save those who control them.
I can see benefits of such limitations for say a company-owned devices with cyber-security in mind. When we talk about open market of devices in an increasingly "digital" world I am against limitations with profit in mind. It's like many things in life. When you want to do or use something you have to learn to use it, often by getting burned or otherwise making a mistake. You having to fix family devices has nothing to do with it. Anyway I have no stake in this, I would never buy an Apple device. Companies pushing for "infinite growth" with such policies will be left in the dust imo, but the billionares will just move on after milking everything dry.
"I frequently interface with idiots, so I don't feel it would be safe for you to have full control over the hardware you own."
All bootloaders should be able to be unlocked and able to install the OS of your choice. Also you should be able to choose whatever app store you want. It is your hardware, you payed for it.
If you want a customizable phone, yes. If you want a secured phone, no.
There are already existing products for both sides. No point in forcing them to do something else at this point.
Apple's software is malware
How so?
Except Google is trying to limit this on Android phones as well (e.g. with SafetyNet).
If manufacturers had their way, there wouldn't be any phones for one side.
There's nothing stopping manufacturers from permanently locking the bootloader. Some do and others don't suggesting that the industry does not have a universal preference.
I do think Google wants it to be inconvenient enough to run a version of Android they haven't blessed as one's main phone that it has no chance to become mainstream, but that's about the prospect of an OEM not bundling Google's apps and store, not hobbyists running custom builds. If that sounds like an attempt to use market power to exclude competitors in violation of fair trading laws in a multitude of jurisdictions, you might be on to something.
Some manufacturers have stopped allowing unlocking their bootloaders, some bootloaders have been hacked by the community. It's not like this is a static system.
No, Google is also trying to stop hobbyists running custom builds from accessing services built on their software (the aforementioned SafetyNet). Hackers keep finding ways around this, but Google keeps trying to lock them out.
That's a side effect. If Google really wanted to interfere with hobbyists, they would mandate hardware-based attestation and all the current workarounds would be broken. It would be much harder to create workarounds for that.
And also all current phones would be broken, which they can't do.
It appears phones as old as the Android 8 era can support this and phones that shipped with Android 13 or newer always do. I had the impression it had been universal a little longer.
I mean that's something that'd happen regardless of whether you may install other App Stores on an iPhone easily, no?
GP wrote:
App stores are just one part of the puzzle. Unless consumers actually have rights, manufacturers will keep trying to limit their options.
The reason I don't use Android phones in China is because every company uses its own, separate version of what's basically microG (notifications, location...) and update checking, and so my RAM is gone before I know it and everything's super laggy. And on my grandma's Android tablet these desktop-style notifications pop up overwhelmingly because of certain apps that bundle adware. This is what happens when sanctions took away a default option. Customization is no doubt something great for hobbyists and an option that should exist but there is a benefit to having a default monopoly (though, again, there should be an opt-out).
Sure, but Google is trying to take away that opt-out! So we'll be left with a monopoly and nothing else. That's strictly worse than not having a default monopoly.
I agree with you, but my point from the start here (which I should've said more clearly) was that this doesn't mean Apple must open up in response (and by default), which would leave us with no good centralized, minimalistic option either.
But you don't have Google available as an option due to sanctions, right? It doesn't have anything to do with other options being available. The same would go for Apple - they could be cut away with sanctions, and having other options wouldn't preclude the default option from existing.
I don't get what you mean.
How do other app stores on Android lead to Google stuff not being available? There's no connection, the reason is sanctions.
How would other app stores on iOS lead to Apple stuff not being available?
I'm not saying having other app stores on Android nor iOS lead/will lead to them being unavailable. I'm saying there needs to be an option with a single app store and set of services. Having multiple app stores on Apple and very easily installable would cause similar issues with RAM and usability for the less initiated, and everyone was uninitiated once.
Other app stores on Android don't necessarily lead to issues with RAM and usability. They don't have to re-implement the Google framework stuff.
The same would go for Apple, and people will simply have options. Sure, they'll have to learn about them, but they have to learn about many things in life! And it's not like Apple will suddenly allow others to re-implement their SDK.
But there's no reason to discuss hypotheticals here, as this is currently playing out in the EU. We should be seeing the issues you mention, but we don't.
Most of these apps don't in China either. But you do need to reimplement an update-checker. And that's enough to hog the RAM. And with the RAM already hogged, the window shattered, little optimization of the update-checker is done.
They won't learn about it if it becomes the norm to have RAM hogged.
No, you have to go through complicated bureaucracy and fees to become an independent app store for iOS. Anyone who goes through this is probably competent enough to optimize their update-checker.
I have three app stores installed on my Android, yet none hog my RAM. This is a non-issue (especially since an update checker doesn't run all the time, only on infrequent intervals which are triggered by the OS itself).
You are initiated enough to consciously avoid junk apps.
ICE has been notified, nice try, domestic terrorist
Good thing i'm Canadian then, lol.