25 ms·

Hogwash. Unsophisticated users installing third party packages and "fucking themselves" doesn't seem to be a big problem in OSX. Nor does it seem to be a big p

Hogwash. Unsophisticated users installing third party packages and "fucking themselves" doesn't seem to be a big problem in OSX. Nor does it seem to be a big problem for Symbian, WinMob, BB, Android, etc. Allowing Opera, as an example, to be installed on an iPhone isn't going to stop it from working and behaving like an iPhone. It'll just be an iPhone with 1 additional application installed on it. Hardly world changing.

blasdel 17y ago
Unsophisticated users "fucking themselves" was a huge problem in OS X's early years (and only petered out with the horde of switchers 3-4 years ago), mostly thanks to the aggressive efforts of these folks: http://unsanity.com/ http://unsanity.com/ It was an extraordinarily similar situation: tons of expected features were left out of the new OS, and large parts of the UI changed substantially from what old users were habituated to. The most popular 'Haxie' by far was Windowshade, which restored the old window minimization metaphor of collapsing into the titlebar, and was installed by millions of mostly elderly people. Unfortunately, that whole class of extensions worked by means of a kernel extension that diddled with the address spaces of every binary and interposed itself in core GUI library code. They fucked over not just the users, but anyone who had to support any application on their systems. If they allowed you to easily install apps from other sources, they'd be right back in that boat immediately and they know it. A fringe group of users (and handset manufacturers) have been fucking themselves for years on Windows Mobile: http://www.xda-developers.com/ http://www.xda-developers.com/ -- and they've had an exodus to Android, where they have access to a lot more consumer users that would think of installing their stuff.

25 ms·

Hogwash. Unsophisticated users installing third party packages and "fucking themselves" doesn't seem to be a big problem in OSX. Nor does it seem to be a big p

by theBobMcCormick 17y ago

blasdel 17y ago
Unsophisticated users "fucking themselves" was a huge problem in OS X's early years (and only petered out with the horde of switchers 3-4 years ago), mostly thanks to the aggressive efforts of these folks: http://unsanity.com/ http://unsanity.com/ It was an extraordinarily similar situation: tons of expected features were left out of the new OS, and large parts of the UI changed substantially from what old users were habituated to. The most popular 'Haxie' by far was Windowshade, which restored the old window minimization metaphor of collapsing into the titlebar, and was installed by millions of mostly elderly people. Unfortunately, that whole class of extensions worked by means of a kernel extension that diddled with the address spaces of every binary and interposed itself in core GUI library code. They fucked over not just the users, but anyone who had to support any application on their systems. If they allowed you to easily install apps from other sources, they'd be right back in that boat immediately and they know it. A fringe group of users (and handset manufacturers) have been fucking themselves for years on Windows Mobile: http://www.xda-developers.com/ http://www.xda-developers.com/ -- and they've had an exodus to Android, where they have access to a lot more consumer users that would think of installing their stuff.