5 ms·

We see another side effect of app stores: gives governments easy leverage to tell you what you can do with your computer.

kunai 6y ago
Bingo. Wonder how all the Apple defenders like John Gruber are gonna spin this one. App Stores were always a mistake. Walled gardens were always a mistake. The people arguing that they were good because of security or whatever were arguing on behalf of a red herring. It's security theater. iOS has had, what, like 6 critical vulnerabilities in the past 5 years? What was the point? Quite literally only to limit what you can and can't run on your own device. For all it's worth, I'm thrilled the Microsoft Store is dying a painful death and that most Windows apps continue to be installable via NSIS or MSIs.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
  I grew up before the mobile 'revolution' and I miss the days when just getting a setup.exe from a friend on a floppy disk and running it to install a piece of software did not feel like high treason.
- Ir0nMan 6y ago
  App Stores were not a mistake, having only one App store allowed like Apple does is a mistake.
2bitencryption 6y ago
I hadn't even thought of this. What if WeChat was a traditional installer (.msi, .app, .exe, .run) that you download from some sever and which is mirrored all over the place? Does the same authority apply? Can the government say "it's illegal to have this binary executable?" Or is this only possible because there's one central repository for these platforms, and the government can simply compel the platform (legal and ethical questions aside) to remove them?
- failuser 6y ago
  They can issue the order, the question is how diligently would the order be fulfilled. Check file name? Check hash? Do a heuristic analysis a la antivirus? Filter network traffic for app signatures on to of this?
- Aperocky 6y ago
  You actually can, there's a desktop version.
  - mmwelt 6y ago
    Yes, there is, but it requires you to scan a code with your mobile phone before you can use it!
- anon9001 6y ago
  Sure, they can, but they won't bother. The average American isn't going to download software on a PC. They have an iPhone or Android device as their primary computer. Banning the app stores is enough to get the manipulation of the masses that they want. From what I understand, China does the same. Ban the easy things, only bother to crackdown on the harder things (like VPN or cryptocurrency) when they start to get out of control.
cblconfederate 6y ago
you can get a VPN to bypass the Great Firewall. You can't get anything to bypass the App Store
- franklampard 6y ago
  I’ll buy a non iPhone, easy

kunai 6y ago

Bingo. Wonder how all the Apple defenders like John Gruber are gonna spin this one. App Stores were always a mistake. Walled gardens were always a mistake. The people arguing that they were good because of security or whatever were arguing on behalf of a red herring. It's security theater. iOS has had, what, like 6 critical vulnerabilities in the past 5 years? What was the point? Quite literally only to limit what you can and can't run on your own device. For all it's worth, I'm thrilled the Microsoft Store is dying a painful death and that most Windows apps continue to be installable via NSIS or MSIs.

kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
I grew up before the mobile 'revolution' and I miss the days when just getting a setup.exe from a friend on a floppy disk and running it to install a piece of software did not feel like high treason.
Ir0nMan 6y ago
App Stores were not a mistake, having only one App store allowed like Apple does is a mistake.

2bitencryption 6y ago

I hadn't even thought of this. What if WeChat was a traditional installer (.msi, .app, .exe, .run) that you download from some sever and which is mirrored all over the place? Does the same authority apply? Can the government say "it's illegal to have this binary executable?" Or is this only possible because there's one central repository for these platforms, and the government can simply compel the platform (legal and ethical questions aside) to remove them?

failuser 6y ago
They can issue the order, the question is how diligently would the order be fulfilled. Check file name? Check hash? Do a heuristic analysis a la antivirus? Filter network traffic for app signatures on to of this?
Aperocky 6y ago
You actually can, there's a desktop version.
- mmwelt 6y ago
  Yes, there is, but it requires you to scan a code with your mobile phone before you can use it!
anon9001 6y ago
Sure, they can, but they won't bother. The average American isn't going to download software on a PC. They have an iPhone or Android device as their primary computer. Banning the app stores is enough to get the manipulation of the masses that they want. From what I understand, China does the same. Ban the easy things, only bother to crackdown on the harder things (like VPN or cryptocurrency) when they start to get out of control.

cblconfederate 6y ago

you can get a VPN to bypass the Great Firewall. You can't get anything to bypass the App Store

franklampard 6y ago
I’ll buy a non iPhone, easy