3 ms·

I've been a big Apple fan over the years. They continue to grow more tarnished for me. But my big problem is... where do I go? It's not like Android phones are

I've been a big Apple fan over the years. They continue to grow more tarnished for me. But my big problem is... where do I go? It's not like Android phones are better--I write native apps on both, I have 9 Android phones sitting to the left of me right now, and 6 iDevices to my right--they're worse to use. They're a night mare to code for compared to iOS. I write Linux, Windows, and Mac code from post Ives 16"MBP. The OS is as good as any Linux I use (it's worse in some ways, but better than others). The hardware is impressive. I have tried the Linux on Windows stuff, Windows is the worst. It's not like it was 20 years ago, when MacOSX was in its infancy, and Linux was awesome, and you could reinstall Sawfish WM on Linux running on the Windows laptop the company gave you. Apple hardware/software has its warts, but overall it's pretty good stuff all things averaged. So I'd love to escape their growingly evil ecosystem of services, but it's not clear what the development rig better and more free/enabling than this would be.

lupire 4y ago
Your 20 year old Linux still works. All you have to do is not be greedy about wanting all the inventions that evil corporations made in the past 20 years.
smoldesu 4y ago
The goal shouldn't be to 'escape', but rather encourage our businesses to do the right thing so people aren't hostages in the first place. If Apple simply played fair, I don't think anyone would feel the need to leave (or fear that they need to). Perhaps this will be the ultimate test of Apple putting their customers before profits... In any case, I think Linux replaces MacOS without much protest. I hated working around Mac-specific idiosyncrasies anyways, and while a number of devs might protest, Apple hardware makes for fine Linux machines these days. You're right to identify that iOS is harder to replace, but it's hard to imagine a long-term solution that doesn't involve Apple allowing sideloading. I really hope they do the right thing here, but that's all we can do.
andai 4y ago
I'm often reminded of Stallman's message that Free Software would be the right thing to use, for reasons of ethics and preserving freedom for ourselves and others, even if it were a worse experience. (He argues that it isn't worse, but that's a different conversation.)
rtpg 4y ago
It's so frustrating that Android isn't better. I ... think that it's mostly due to app design not being so great. But the super glib part of me is unable to escape from the idea that there is an original sin with Android, with its complications around activities and the like, and the JVM, that make the weird jittery lagginess inevitable. I know that in theory you should be able to have a high perf layer for graphics and animations, but where is it? It's just embarassing that somehow we've ended up in a situation where there is so much money poured into an "open" (yes I know it's not open but) system and yet it still feels so bad compared to iOS on a... 4 year old device
- laumars 4y ago
  It’s been a few years since I’ve ran Android but I remember it was possible to have silky smooth animations via custom ROMs. The problem was a lot of OEMs slapped crap loads of bloat on an underpowered handset. This might not be the case any more, it’s been years since I’ve ran Android, but there once was a time when running cyanagenmod (I think it was called) on a HTC handset gave you a better experience than iOS on an iPhone.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
sylens 4y ago
I see more and more people getting into this mindset. They want a little more openness than what Apple provides, but they want a little more structure and direction than Android. I really do wonder what would happen if Microsoft made a fork of Android with a replacement for Google Play Services (maybe something that emulated many of the APIs, putting Google in an ironic situation to say that its APIs are protected under copyright law)

lupire 4y ago

Your 20 year old Linux still works. All you have to do is not be greedy about wanting all the inventions that evil corporations made in the past 20 years.

smoldesu 4y ago

The goal shouldn't be to 'escape', but rather encourage our businesses to do the right thing so people aren't hostages in the first place. If Apple simply played fair, I don't think anyone would feel the need to leave (or fear that they need to). Perhaps this will be the ultimate test of Apple putting their customers before profits... In any case, I think Linux replaces MacOS without much protest. I hated working around Mac-specific idiosyncrasies anyways, and while a number of devs might protest, Apple hardware makes for fine Linux machines these days. You're right to identify that iOS is harder to replace, but it's hard to imagine a long-term solution that doesn't involve Apple allowing sideloading. I really hope they do the right thing here, but that's all we can do.

andai 4y ago

I'm often reminded of Stallman's message that Free Software would be the right thing to use, for reasons of ethics and preserving freedom for ourselves and others, even if it were a worse experience. (He argues that it isn't worse, but that's a different conversation.)

rtpg 4y ago

It's so frustrating that Android isn't better. I ... think that it's mostly due to app design not being so great. But the super glib part of me is unable to escape from the idea that there is an original sin with Android, with its complications around activities and the like, and the JVM, that make the weird jittery lagginess inevitable. I know that in theory you should be able to have a high perf layer for graphics and animations, but where is it? It's just embarassing that somehow we've ended up in a situation where there is so much money poured into an "open" (yes I know it's not open but) system and yet it still feels so bad compared to iOS on a... 4 year old device

laumars 4y ago
It’s been a few years since I’ve ran Android but I remember it was possible to have silky smooth animations via custom ROMs. The problem was a lot of OEMs slapped crap loads of bloat on an underpowered handset. This might not be the case any more, it’s been years since I’ve ran Android, but there once was a time when running cyanagenmod (I think it was called) on a HTC handset gave you a better experience than iOS on an iPhone.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

sylens 4y ago

I see more and more people getting into this mindset. They want a little more openness than what Apple provides, but they want a little more structure and direction than Android. I really do wonder what would happen if Microsoft made a fork of Android with a replacement for Google Play Services (maybe something that emulated many of the APIs, putting Google in an ironic situation to say that its APIs are protected under copyright law)