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Well, as much as the business model is untenable, it lasted 13 years and counting. [0] The things that have changed aren't strictly upgrades or downgrades. App

Well, as much as the business model is untenable, it lasted 13 years and counting. [0] The things that have changed aren't strictly upgrades or downgrades. Apple's approval process is much quicker than it was in 2009, but instead of sitting on a bug fix for four weeks, now they reject you with no explanation while 20 other apps doing the same thing Apple is angry about make millions on the store. >They get away with maltreating developers, in the short term, because they make such great hardware. I just bought a new 27" iMac a couple days ago. It's fabulous. The screen's too shiny, and the disk is surprisingly loud, but it's so beautiful that you can't make yourself care. I feel the exact same way with the 13" iPad Pro I bought last year. Amazing hardware, but it feels like computing in a straitjacket. Even jailbreaking it only goes so far to fix the underlying problem, which is that playing by Apple's rules is a genuine roadblock to a lot of pro app developers who are accustomed to selling direct-to-consumer. However, I don't think Apple actually cares. The iPad Pro exists for exactly one kind of customer, and one kind of customer only: professional artists. As far as they're concerned, people who want proper developer tools, the full Adobe or Autodesk suites, or what have you can just give up the touchscreen and cellular modem and buy a Mac. >With Apple that seems less the case. When you look at the famous 1984 ad now, it's easier to imagine Apple as the dictator on the screen than the woman with the hammer. ...Did Paul Graham consult with Tim Sweeney on #FreeFortnite? [0] Also, the submission title should probably have a (2009) in it...

tharne 5y ago
> Amazing hardware, but it feels like computing in a straitjacket. That's precisely what drove me away from apple laptops a few years back and back to linux for my home computing. I was running an (only somewhat) older machine and every update ate more hard drive space and hurt performance. And because apple made it, it was damn near impossible to upgrade either the hard drive or the memory. But, it is beautiful hardware...
chaostheory 5y ago
What pg couldn’t predict is that there are still no good alternatives to the Apple ecosystem. For normal people, there’s still only two viable alternatives: MS and Google. Both have their pros and cont, but neither is significantly better than Apple. Maybe with the coming XR paradigm shift, things will change?
- brimble 5y ago
  As an Apple user, I really wish they had competition. I'm a long-time Linux user too, and that ain't competition. I still use Windows a little for work, and personally for gaming, and wow, is that ever not an alternative to what Apple offers. I'm tentatively hopeful for Fuchsia, but 1) It's Google, so will a non-high-effort/high-jank version exist that isn't first and foremost a spying platform? and 2) Android's not all that good and never has been, though to be fair (I suppose) they acquired that. As it is, when Apple fucks up (which is often!) I survey the "competition" and decide that, no, I don't want to take on four new problems for every one I avoid.
  - chaostheory 5y ago
    I agree and I feel that you’ve summarized the landscape better than I did
    - brimble 5y ago
      I take the state of things as more a strong indictment of the rest of the industry, than Apple's being super-duper awesome. Turns out pretty-good is, like, way better than the rest. :-( I guess that's what you get with a market of this shape, having very few viable options, all mutually incompatible, plus all tied in with perverse incentives from other parts of their various vertically-integrated behemoth-corporations—even Linux suffers from what sure looks like some fire-and-motion action from Red Hat, I assume aimed at keeping them on top in the support & consulting game. Ubuntu tries something similar off-and-on, but just aren't as good at executing on those plans and have mostly failed. Really, one of the most remarkable things about Apple is that they do a good job of aligning most of their own incentives with things that provide some kind of significant benefit to users, even if it's arguably only as a side-effect.
ghughes 5y ago
"Computing in a straitjacket" - this is wonderfully pithy.

tharne 5y ago

> Amazing hardware, but it feels like computing in a straitjacket. That's precisely what drove me away from apple laptops a few years back and back to linux for my home computing. I was running an (only somewhat) older machine and every update ate more hard drive space and hurt performance. And because apple made it, it was damn near impossible to upgrade either the hard drive or the memory. But, it is beautiful hardware...

chaostheory 5y ago

What pg couldn’t predict is that there are still no good alternatives to the Apple ecosystem. For normal people, there’s still only two viable alternatives: MS and Google. Both have their pros and cont, but neither is significantly better than Apple. Maybe with the coming XR paradigm shift, things will change?

brimble 5y ago
As an Apple user, I really wish they had competition. I'm a long-time Linux user too, and that ain't competition. I still use Windows a little for work, and personally for gaming, and wow, is that ever not an alternative to what Apple offers. I'm tentatively hopeful for Fuchsia, but 1) It's Google, so will a non-high-effort/high-jank version exist that isn't first and foremost a spying platform? and 2) Android's not all that good and never has been, though to be fair (I suppose) they acquired that. As it is, when Apple fucks up (which is often!) I survey the "competition" and decide that, no, I don't want to take on four new problems for every one I avoid.
- chaostheory 5y ago
  I agree and I feel that you’ve summarized the landscape better than I did
  - brimble 5y ago
    I take the state of things as more a strong indictment of the rest of the industry, than Apple's being super-duper awesome. Turns out pretty-good is, like, way better than the rest. :-( I guess that's what you get with a market of this shape, having very few viable options, all mutually incompatible, plus all tied in with perverse incentives from other parts of their various vertically-integrated behemoth-corporations—even Linux suffers from what sure looks like some fire-and-motion action from Red Hat, I assume aimed at keeping them on top in the support & consulting game. Ubuntu tries something similar off-and-on, but just aren't as good at executing on those plans and have mostly failed. Really, one of the most remarkable things about Apple is that they do a good job of aligning most of their own incentives with things that provide some kind of significant benefit to users, even if it's arguably only as a side-effect.

ghughes 5y ago

"Computing in a straitjacket" - this is wonderfully pithy.