4 ms·

Apple makes excellent hardware and polished OS. However, if you care about your freedoms, you need to take a bullet and chose to replace it with a less restrict

Apple makes excellent hardware and polished OS. However, if you care about your freedoms, you need to take a bullet and chose to replace it with a less restrictive operating system, perhaps sacrificing some convenience along the way. I personally decided that it is not OS vendor business to decide for me what programs to install and what information they are allowed to show me.

zepto 6y ago
100% this. Also we need a right to install our own OS. The right level for intervention is at the level of forcing Apple to provide a Bootcamp for iOS. This is far more important than a right to repair, since many many iOS devices continue to be useful for many years after Apple stops supporting them.
crossroadsguy 6y ago
I realised, more so in last few months, the difference between Android and iOS is literally letting your own whims and fancy randomly pick the lesser of evils. As a full time Android developer I was able to seemingly convince myself that moving back to Android (after 4+ years on iOS) indeed makes sense, especially since Android has come really a long way. Also, that I will accept Google will track every move and shake of mine and show me ads based on that data (assuming just Google gets to do it; I'd buy a stock Android phone). But when iPhone 12 was released and I saw the mini is perfectly sized for my palms. I was almost salivating. Even though I find iPhones horrendously expansive. Yes, I do. Except maybe for an SE. Just to make it sound fair, I find most of the expansive flagship Android phones expansive as well. So anyway, I almost did a full 180 and was about to think about buying the new iPhone. But then the enthusiasm started to wane. I saw that there's no touch id, jack was gone anyway, battery life has always been lacklustre, and that there's no way I can silence just one of the dual sims and keep another on separate notification settings (just something I want/need). But I was still deciding. What really hit me hard, in last few weeks, is that Apple has consistently been exploiting customers, more with every release - every move. Blatantly at that. Sometimes in the name of privacy on a completely closed OS and apps, in fact a completely closed ecosystem. Strips devices of useful and convenient hardware features and components. Then very sadistically and successfully patches the voids with "innovation" stickers. Even worse - marks the move as "environment friendly". Headphone jack, earphone and chargers - all gone. Strong arms developers (small and big alike), tries to run repair shops out of business, ensures its devices are less and less repairable - by making it physically difficult and lobbying as well, stifles free speech - literally and doesn't even try to be subtle about it, hands over keys of the kingdom to the authoritarian regimes with far reaches, CEO hobnobs with heads of states of questionable (or actually very obvious) records. We still buy their devices. Enthusiastically. In fact we become such apt apologists that it must be painful for anyone else to read the reactions to criticism. There were plenty of such comments, right here; just from the iPhone 12 release day, which read something like, "Oh, once I started using Bluetooth Headphones and never looked back". Innocuous looking, just a satisfied customer feeling grateful, apologetic comments like these are worst in such contexts. Anyway, then I spent few hours researching a ~5 inch phone with stock Android phone for the nth time yesterday and I didn't find one. The closest, Pixel 4a, has a plastic body. I really do not think I am buying any other Apple device ever (or for the foreseeable future) and I am glad I've not bought into their services. iMessage is useless here anyway. My whims and fancy kinda have stopped seeing Apple as the lesser of the two evils (wrt mobile platforms), or so it seems as of now.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- vzaliva 6y ago
  So, the conclusion of your long-winded rant is that plastic body of Pixel is a show-stopper for you and you prefer Apple policing your freedoms for the price of metal phone body?
- grishka 6y ago
  > Also, that I will accept Google will track every move and shake of mine and show me ads based on that data (assuming just Google gets to do it; I'd buy a stock Android phone). You do know you can use the private DNS feature to block ads and analytics system-wide, don't you? There's also a "VPN service" app called Blokada[1] that effectively does the same thing but in a less optimal way. Anyway, blocking your own devices from communicating with the servers of malicious actors feels like basic infosec hygiene in 2020. Actually, I should probably release that ad-blocking DNSoTLS server I made for myself and had been using ever since Android 9 came out. [1] https://blokada.org https://blokada.org
- dm319 6y ago
  Why is polycarbonate inferior to metal? It won't slip out your hands so easily and it is far tougher than soft aluminium.
bambax 6y ago
Frankly, Android with just okay brands such as Motorola, is totally fine. I wouldn't call using such a phone "taking a bullet". It works well for everything. Maybe the camera is a little inferior (but if photography is your thing you should use a real camera anyway). For all the rest... it's just as good, for 1/4 to 1/5 of the price.
- judge2020 6y ago
  I still find the forced upgrade lifecycle to be horrendous. An iPhone 7 can still be updated to iOS 14 today, and assuming the battery has been replaced recently (which would be required for a long-lasting android phone as well) it'll work extremely well as a daily driver for everything short of 3d gaming (and even then, games will just turn down graphics settings to achieve acceptable performance). As far as I could find, the earliest phone that has Android 11 is the pixel 2 from 2017 (rip pixel 1) and outside of the pixel lineup, you're only guaranteed 2 years of OS updates if a phone is part of the Android One program[0]. Apple has its problems but their sole control of payments via the App Store is a huge incentive to keep maintaining iOS for old devices. 0: https://www.android.com/one/ https://www.android.com/one/
  - dm319 6y ago
    My iPhone 4s' last upgrade made the phone unuseably slow. Whereas Android 10 on my pixel OG still feels modern and silky smooth.
kelnos 6y ago
The thing that sucks is that it's hard to know what the lesser of the two evils is. Sure, Google lets you install whatever you want on your phone, but they're also an advertising company that wants to track everything you do. I'm probably better than the average Android user at blocking most unwanted tracking and avoiding malware, but the situation isn't great. I've never had an iPhone in part because I'd have to pay a yearly fee for the privilege of doing what I want with my device, and practices like the one described in TFA make me very uncomfortable with Apple as a company. I think this (in a Twitter thread linked from TFA) really sums it up for me[0]: > Hardware DRM being used for meta-moderation of a general messaging app is totally unacceptable. [0] https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1315314586988421123 https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1315314586988421123
vanusa 6y ago
If you care about your freedoms, you need to take a bullet and chose to replace it with a less restrictive operating system, perhaps sacrificing some convenience along the way. So - what good laptop systems do you recommend? That don't involve troubleshooting (literally) 14 different major dependency issues just to get the thing up and running on commodity hardware (as was my last experience with desktop - granted about 15 years ago)? That is to say: which just work (and fast, and well) -- like MacBooks used to work, until a few years ago?
- GimbalLock 6y ago
  You might consider System76 laptops. https://system76.com/ https://system76.com/
  - harry8 6y ago
    Sadly those are not telephones. Laptops are are really not so hard to run your favourite distribution of linux. IBM t-series are always good for that. I've had a reasonable time with mac book pro, asus ux31A, Dell precision 5510.
harry8 6y ago
The Nokia N900 from a decade ago. Killed by Microsoft. Nothing yet has matched it. Soon. I hope. Please. Soon. Been saying that for a decade...

zepto 6y ago

100% this. Also we need a right to install our own OS. The right level for intervention is at the level of forcing Apple to provide a Bootcamp for iOS. This is far more important than a right to repair, since many many iOS devices continue to be useful for many years after Apple stops supporting them.

crossroadsguy 6y ago

I realised, more so in last few months, the difference between Android and iOS is literally letting your own whims and fancy randomly pick the lesser of evils. As a full time Android developer I was able to seemingly convince myself that moving back to Android (after 4+ years on iOS) indeed makes sense, especially since Android has come really a long way. Also, that I will accept Google will track every move and shake of mine and show me ads based on that data (assuming just Google gets to do it; I'd buy a stock Android phone). But when iPhone 12 was released and I saw the mini is perfectly sized for my palms. I was almost salivating. Even though I find iPhones horrendously expansive. Yes, I do. Except maybe for an SE. Just to make it sound fair, I find most of the expansive flagship Android phones expansive as well. So anyway, I almost did a full 180 and was about to think about buying the new iPhone. But then the enthusiasm started to wane. I saw that there's no touch id, jack was gone anyway, battery life has always been lacklustre, and that there's no way I can silence just one of the dual sims and keep another on separate notification settings (just something I want/need). But I was still deciding. What really hit me hard, in last few weeks, is that Apple has consistently been exploiting customers, more with every release - every move. Blatantly at that. Sometimes in the name of privacy on a completely closed OS and apps, in fact a completely closed ecosystem. Strips devices of useful and convenient hardware features and components. Then very sadistically and successfully patches the voids with "innovation" stickers. Even worse - marks the move as "environment friendly". Headphone jack, earphone and chargers - all gone. Strong arms developers (small and big alike), tries to run repair shops out of business, ensures its devices are less and less repairable - by making it physically difficult and lobbying as well, stifles free speech - literally and doesn't even try to be subtle about it, hands over keys of the kingdom to the authoritarian regimes with far reaches, CEO hobnobs with heads of states of questionable (or actually very obvious) records. We still buy their devices. Enthusiastically. In fact we become such apt apologists that it must be painful for anyone else to read the reactions to criticism. There were plenty of such comments, right here; just from the iPhone 12 release day, which read something like, "Oh, once I started using Bluetooth Headphones and never looked back". Innocuous looking, just a satisfied customer feeling grateful, apologetic comments like these are worst in such contexts. Anyway, then I spent few hours researching a ~5 inch phone with stock Android phone for the nth time yesterday and I didn't find one. The closest, Pixel 4a, has a plastic body. I really do not think I am buying any other Apple device ever (or for the foreseeable future) and I am glad I've not bought into their services. iMessage is useless here anyway. My whims and fancy kinda have stopped seeing Apple as the lesser of the two evils (wrt mobile platforms), or so it seems as of now.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
vzaliva 6y ago
So, the conclusion of your long-winded rant is that plastic body of Pixel is a show-stopper for you and you prefer Apple policing your freedoms for the price of metal phone body?
grishka 6y ago
> Also, that I will accept Google will track every move and shake of mine and show me ads based on that data (assuming just Google gets to do it; I'd buy a stock Android phone). You do know you can use the private DNS feature to block ads and analytics system-wide, don't you? There's also a "VPN service" app called Blokada[1] that effectively does the same thing but in a less optimal way. Anyway, blocking your own devices from communicating with the servers of malicious actors feels like basic infosec hygiene in 2020. Actually, I should probably release that ad-blocking DNSoTLS server I made for myself and had been using ever since Android 9 came out. [1] https://blokada.org https://blokada.org
dm319 6y ago
Why is polycarbonate inferior to metal? It won't slip out your hands so easily and it is far tougher than soft aluminium.

bambax 6y ago

Frankly, Android with just okay brands such as Motorola, is totally fine. I wouldn't call using such a phone "taking a bullet". It works well for everything. Maybe the camera is a little inferior (but if photography is your thing you should use a real camera anyway). For all the rest... it's just as good, for 1/4 to 1/5 of the price.

judge2020 6y ago
I still find the forced upgrade lifecycle to be horrendous. An iPhone 7 can still be updated to iOS 14 today, and assuming the battery has been replaced recently (which would be required for a long-lasting android phone as well) it'll work extremely well as a daily driver for everything short of 3d gaming (and even then, games will just turn down graphics settings to achieve acceptable performance). As far as I could find, the earliest phone that has Android 11 is the pixel 2 from 2017 (rip pixel 1) and outside of the pixel lineup, you're only guaranteed 2 years of OS updates if a phone is part of the Android One program[0]. Apple has its problems but their sole control of payments via the App Store is a huge incentive to keep maintaining iOS for old devices. 0: https://www.android.com/one/ https://www.android.com/one/
- dm319 6y ago
  My iPhone 4s' last upgrade made the phone unuseably slow. Whereas Android 10 on my pixel OG still feels modern and silky smooth.

kelnos 6y ago

The thing that sucks is that it's hard to know what the lesser of the two evils is. Sure, Google lets you install whatever you want on your phone, but they're also an advertising company that wants to track everything you do. I'm probably better than the average Android user at blocking most unwanted tracking and avoiding malware, but the situation isn't great. I've never had an iPhone in part because I'd have to pay a yearly fee for the privilege of doing what I want with my device, and practices like the one described in TFA make me very uncomfortable with Apple as a company. I think this (in a Twitter thread linked from TFA) really sums it up for me[0]: > Hardware DRM being used for meta-moderation of a general messaging app is totally unacceptable. [0] https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1315314586988421123 https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1315314586988421123

vanusa 6y ago

If you care about your freedoms, you need to take a bullet and chose to replace it with a less restrictive operating system, perhaps sacrificing some convenience along the way. So - what good laptop systems do you recommend? That don't involve troubleshooting (literally) 14 different major dependency issues just to get the thing up and running on commodity hardware (as was my last experience with desktop - granted about 15 years ago)? That is to say: which just work (and fast, and well) -- like MacBooks used to work, until a few years ago?

GimbalLock 6y ago
You might consider System76 laptops. https://system76.com/ https://system76.com/
- harry8 6y ago
  Sadly those are not telephones. Laptops are are really not so hard to run your favourite distribution of linux. IBM t-series are always good for that. I've had a reasonable time with mac book pro, asus ux31A, Dell precision 5510.

harry8 6y ago

The Nokia N900 from a decade ago. Killed by Microsoft. Nothing yet has matched it. Soon. I hope. Please. Soon. Been saying that for a decade...