7 ms·

You (and anyone reading this comment) are a rare exception. Users of this site are interested in how tech works. You spend time to understand what it’s doing an

You (and anyone reading this comment) are a rare exception. Users of this site are interested in how tech works. You spend time to understand what it’s doing and make things work for you. And that’s awesome! Personally I’m the same way. But an overwhelming majority of people do not want to fight with or customize their tech. Opening the tech actually tricks them into causing more problems by clicking random pop up’s on websites that look like system updates or other malware / advert tricks. A recent discussion on this problem is here [1]. I’m not sure how to solve this. Maybe we need an actually viable Linux phone for tinkerers, while also having a locked down iPhone for the less tech literate? Maybe Apple can introduce a less locked down version of iOS for power users? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33314291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33314291

nordsieck 4y ago
> Maybe we need an actually viable Linux phone for tinkerers, while also having a locked down iPhone for the less tech literate? Maybe Apple can introduce a less locked down version of iOS for power users? A key problem with this is volume. Most people fall into the "less tech literate" group, which means that the devices made for that market will be better (more capable and/or less expensive). Maybe there's a solution (I'm think about "developer mode" and "linux development environment" in Chrome OS); but I think it'll always be not so great in the best of cases.
rosnd 4y ago
> Maybe we need an actually viable Linux phone for tinkerers Like this https://store.google.com/product/pixel_7_pro https://store.google.com/product/pixel_7_pro?
- slenk 4y ago
  You can do almost anything with the unlocked phones from Google. They are great!
- fsflover 4y ago
  No, like Pinephone and Librem 5.
rootusrootus 4y ago
> an overwhelming majority of people do not want to fight with or customize their tech > while also having a locked down iPhone for the less tech literate? Your post comes across as snobby. Not to mention demonstrably inaccurate. Someone who doesn't want their phone to be a tinkering device may be the most tech literate person on Hacker News. Not everyone wants every piece of tech they own to require tinkering, they just want it to work and get out of their way, so they can focus their tinkering on something else.

nordsieck 4y ago

> Maybe we need an actually viable Linux phone for tinkerers, while also having a locked down iPhone for the less tech literate? Maybe Apple can introduce a less locked down version of iOS for power users? A key problem with this is volume. Most people fall into the "less tech literate" group, which means that the devices made for that market will be better (more capable and/or less expensive). Maybe there's a solution (I'm think about "developer mode" and "linux development environment" in Chrome OS); but I think it'll always be not so great in the best of cases.

rosnd 4y ago

> Maybe we need an actually viable Linux phone for tinkerers Like this https://store.google.com/product/pixel_7_pro https://store.google.com/product/pixel_7_pro?

slenk 4y ago
You can do almost anything with the unlocked phones from Google. They are great!
fsflover 4y ago
No, like Pinephone and Librem 5.

rootusrootus 4y ago

> an overwhelming majority of people do not want to fight with or customize their tech > while also having a locked down iPhone for the less tech literate? Your post comes across as snobby. Not to mention demonstrably inaccurate. Someone who doesn't want their phone to be a tinkering device may be the most tech literate person on Hacker News. Not everyone wants every piece of tech they own to require tinkering, they just want it to work and get out of their way, so they can focus their tinkering on something else.