4 ms·

I choose software that runs on the devices that I don’t have to mess around with. There are plenty of options that do work across the Apple ecosystem. ublock is

I choose software that runs on the devices that I don’t have to mess around with. There are plenty of options that do work across the Apple ecosystem. ublock is not the only option, nor is it necessarily the best one. The extremely minor inconvenience of finding a different adblocker is one time pain. Attempting to curate the “perfect” computing environment is pain that just doesn’t go away. I ran many different distros. I ran LFS as my daily driver for several years. I played with all of the desktop environments. What did it get me? Nothing. There is no practical value in sinking the time into that. It’s fun, sure. But I don’t get paid to have fun. My business doesn’t run on fun.

zeta0134 3y ago
The irritating thing is that the software I want to run works perfectly fine on my mac mini. That's in the Apple ecosystem and yet respects enough of my freedoms to not be a problem. But the iOS devices are entirely locked down. The ad blocker thing one tiny example; what I actually want to run is Real(tm) Firefox and its rich extension ecosystem. There are dozens of little accessibility enhancements I run on top of just the content blocker. The iOS versions of Firefox are heavily gimped, aren't allowed to run the Gecko rendering engine (purely because Apple said so) and can't do the things I need. My iPad basically doesn't have a good browser, just a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Mozilla. All of my other devices do, so it's the odd one out. It's not just Firefox, but that's the example everyone's heard of, so it's what I tend to lead with. I'd also like to be able to run weird media software, background file syncing services that aren't iCloud, and (gasp!) retro game emulators on the devices I own. All disallowed by app store policy, and unlike Android which supports sideloading and alternate app stores, on iOS I have no recourse as an end user. So I choose not to be an end user; I won't purchase hardware that refuses to respect my wishes.
- cweagans 3y ago
  I mean, that's fine. My argument about adblockers applies to other software too: the Apple ecosystem has some of the basics (like sync, browsers, etc) figured out for me so that I don't need to fiddle with it. While I'd like to use Firefox, I don't need to, and the tradeoffs that come with accepting Safari instead are worth it for my specific situation. Forcing myself into a different ecosystem so that I can use different software that does the same thing isn't a good tradeoff for me. It sounds like that's not the case for you - glad you've found an ecosystem that works for you. There are a couple of things you might want to be aware of though: * AltStore exists and works pretty well: https://altstore.io https://altstore.io * iOS 17.2 allows users in some locales to side load apps: https://medium.com/@rmndrathna4/ios-17-2-sideload-apps-what-you-need-to-know-about-apples-new-feature-dcae5665122a https://medium.com/@rmndrathna4/ios-17-2-sideload-apps-what-... . This was sparked by the Digital Markets Act, which could also force Apple to allow alternate browser engines. It went into effect May 2023, but I'm not a lawyer and idk how this will actually affect the Apple ecosystem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Markets_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Markets_Act

zeta0134 3y ago

The irritating thing is that the software I want to run works perfectly fine on my mac mini. That's in the Apple ecosystem and yet respects enough of my freedoms to not be a problem. But the iOS devices are entirely locked down. The ad blocker thing one tiny example; what I actually want to run is Real(tm) Firefox and its rich extension ecosystem. There are dozens of little accessibility enhancements I run on top of just the content blocker. The iOS versions of Firefox are heavily gimped, aren't allowed to run the Gecko rendering engine (purely because Apple said so) and can't do the things I need. My iPad basically doesn't have a good browser, just a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Mozilla. All of my other devices do, so it's the odd one out. It's not just Firefox, but that's the example everyone's heard of, so it's what I tend to lead with. I'd also like to be able to run weird media software, background file syncing services that aren't iCloud, and (gasp!) retro game emulators on the devices I own. All disallowed by app store policy, and unlike Android which supports sideloading and alternate app stores, on iOS I have no recourse as an end user. So I choose not to be an end user; I won't purchase hardware that refuses to respect my wishes.

cweagans 3y ago
I mean, that's fine. My argument about adblockers applies to other software too: the Apple ecosystem has some of the basics (like sync, browsers, etc) figured out for me so that I don't need to fiddle with it. While I'd like to use Firefox, I don't need to, and the tradeoffs that come with accepting Safari instead are worth it for my specific situation. Forcing myself into a different ecosystem so that I can use different software that does the same thing isn't a good tradeoff for me. It sounds like that's not the case for you - glad you've found an ecosystem that works for you. There are a couple of things you might want to be aware of though: * AltStore exists and works pretty well: https://altstore.io https://altstore.io * iOS 17.2 allows users in some locales to side load apps: https://medium.com/@rmndrathna4/ios-17-2-sideload-apps-what-you-need-to-know-about-apples-new-feature-dcae5665122a https://medium.com/@rmndrathna4/ios-17-2-sideload-apps-what-... . This was sparked by the Digital Markets Act, which could also force Apple to allow alternate browser engines. It went into effect May 2023, but I'm not a lawyer and idk how this will actually affect the Apple ecosystem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Markets_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Markets_Act