3 ms·

This is spyware, convince me otherwise. I don't want it, I don't need it, give me the space back taken by local AI. So I have a local AI analysing everything I

This is spyware, convince me otherwise. I don't want it, I don't need it, give me the space back taken by local AI. So I have a local AI analysing everything I do on my Mac, iPhone whatever and the only thing holding back any sort of "AI analysed profile" to authorities (on wrongdoings?) is a "trust me bro we won't do it" from Apple? This tastes like the CSAM on-device analysis debacle from 1-2 years ago. So from now on I have to de-spyware my Apple devices like Windows machines. And the irony: My current Pixel Android phone does not analyse all content on my device! First time in years I'm considering to switch back to Linux for my Laptop.

dingnuts 2y ago
I recently put Linux on an Asus G14 and I can't stop thinking about how it's the same size and similar finish and build quality as my 13" MacBook Pro from 2015 but has a GPU and is running Linux and all the hardware worked out of the box (except maybe the built-in mic which I haven't tested) hell I even bought it in store! eat your heart out Tim Apple, the year of the Linux desktop has arrived anyway my point in this comment is DO IT you won't regret it! modern Linux has gotten so good
- wruza 2y ago
  It hasn’t, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42767368 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42767368 I regret every time I go “modern Linux” and think that people who advise to use it for desktop are either blind to numerous obvious bugs and failures or don’t even use it beyond running a browser. all the hardware worked out of the box Does it sleep and wake up without issues? Can it go sleep twice in a row without reboot? This is the first pain point to check with linux desktop. Programmatic issues are relatively minor compared to this.
  - II2II 2y ago
    In my case: yes and yes. In my case: everything works out of the box with one laptop. The only thing that doesn't work out of the box with my other laptop is the fingerprint reader. Both laptops shipped with Windows. Neither laptop came with any claim of Linux compatibility. Contrast that to Windows, where sleep mode is unreliable on one. You cannot even do a clean install Windows without jumping through hoops on said laptop since generic media does not include WiFi, trackpad, or touchscreen drivers. Every operating system has issues and operating systems that don't work for some people may work for others. From this thread alone, I can guarantee you that there are at least two people in this world for whom Linux supported their hardware out of the box.
    - wruza 2y ago
      What laptops are you on? I can guarantee you that there are at least two people in this world for whom Linux supported their hardware out of the box There are lots of people for whom it’s true, cause there’s a lot of hardware either old and stable enough to be supported, or Thinkpad. “Old” doesn’t mean bad hardware, but it’s not everyone’s or “DO IT” hardware either. Either way, people who say “do it” often forget to mention either the issues (both hw and sw) or which hardware they are using. Props to ggp for specifying their laptop model, but I still would like to know if sleep works for them cause that’s the first point I’m skeptical at. We can’t just logical-or all the good experiences from different people, it doesn’t work like that. Of course working sleep doesn’t erase all the sw issues an average linux desktop user will have. But let’s be honest and not fanboy-ish. I like linux much much more for servers and as a set of system idioms. But its Desktop side is plagued by all sorts of long-standing problems, including low quality software that breaks itself regularly or has unfixable “nuances” reasoned from buggy to delusional. The base GNU/Linux system is absolutely fine and stable and reliable (software-wise). But you can think of Modern Linux Desktop as a sort a slap-over patch that isn’t Linux spirited at all. And when you point these out, the happy welcoming tone often changes from “it just works” to “you get what you paid for, feel free to patch” then to “it’s their project, they are free to reject patches”, then to just crickets.
      - II2II 2y ago
        A Lenovo that is so low-end and generic that they don't even bother assigning it a coherent model name/number and a Lenovo Yoga 7. To be blunt, I am on the other side of the fence: I am quite skeptical when people make blanket statements about Linux not working. One of the benefits of open source is the ability to distribute software with few restrictions. One of the benefits of many Linux distributions is the frequent update cycle. Those two factors mean there is a fairly strong possibility that hardware will work straight after installation. Of course there are exceptions. Some hardware simply isn't supported. It is also possible choose a distribution, like Arch, where the end user is expected to configure almost everything themselves. That said, Windows isn't exactly great on this front either. While the hardware is likely supported, manually installing drivers can be intensive. End user applications, including things like the desktop environment, are an entirely different situation. Here too, I am skeptical of blanket statements. The biggest hurdle is a lack of familiarity: most people are brought up on Windows. They expect software to work as it does under Windows. I'm on the other side of the fence. Having used Linux for over a quarter of a century, I expect software to work as it does under Linux. I can assure you that I have as many problems with Windows as most Windows users have with Linux. As for bugs: Windows applications have those too. The big difference is that you paid for them and there is a relatively low chance they will ever be patched. Granted, I am not advocating for open source software based on the ability of end users being able to patch bugs. Almost no one does, because almost everyone realizes that most end users lack the skills to do so.
  - myaccountonhn 2y ago
    Thinkpad T480s - yes all of those work. As for choosing a distro: Fedora with Gnome worked 100% out of the box. I’ve even been able to play a bunch of games on steam without issue too.
everfree 2y ago
> I have a local AI analysing everything I do on my Mac, iPhone whatever Which feature is this? I must not fully understand what Apple Intelligence does. I thought it was just for summarizing notifications, editing text and generating images. I didn't realize that it analyzes everything you do on your device and builds a profile. Where can I read more about that?
- therealmarv 2y ago
  To be honest I have not done a deep research and I would not trust research on this topic unless it's done by a third party analysing all aspects of Apple Intelligence. So take everything with little grain of salt. But to give you a prominent example of what Apple devices do currently (and for example Android does not): It analyses with local AI all your images on your device. So there is clearly a classification happening here on every image you saved. A worst case scenario: You downloaded an illegal image by mistake (of what nature whatever), local AI indentifies it. You get reported to authorities for doing illegal things. Apple and phone helps police. And now just imagine all sort of other AI analysis e.g. on your Apple notes etc. and do your own conclusion. Apple says: no, we won't do that. Well maybe I feel safer if the technology for allowing to do such things is not even on my device or activated at all. The line of protection of my privacy lies a little bit too much in Apple's hands in my opinion. I don't like it and I don't trust on device AI.
  - commandersaki 2y ago
    You know this isn’t limited to AI. For example just having the option of iCloud could mean your data could sync unencrypted to Apples hands even without turning it on - if Apple were to be surreptitious. So in that regard I don’t see why AI is the new boogeyman.

dingnuts 2y ago

I recently put Linux on an Asus G14 and I can't stop thinking about how it's the same size and similar finish and build quality as my 13" MacBook Pro from 2015 but has a GPU and is running Linux and all the hardware worked out of the box (except maybe the built-in mic which I haven't tested) hell I even bought it in store! eat your heart out Tim Apple, the year of the Linux desktop has arrived anyway my point in this comment is DO IT you won't regret it! modern Linux has gotten so good

wruza 2y ago
It hasn’t, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42767368 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42767368 I regret every time I go “modern Linux” and think that people who advise to use it for desktop are either blind to numerous obvious bugs and failures or don’t even use it beyond running a browser. all the hardware worked out of the box Does it sleep and wake up without issues? Can it go sleep twice in a row without reboot? This is the first pain point to check with linux desktop. Programmatic issues are relatively minor compared to this.
- II2II 2y ago
  In my case: yes and yes. In my case: everything works out of the box with one laptop. The only thing that doesn't work out of the box with my other laptop is the fingerprint reader. Both laptops shipped with Windows. Neither laptop came with any claim of Linux compatibility. Contrast that to Windows, where sleep mode is unreliable on one. You cannot even do a clean install Windows without jumping through hoops on said laptop since generic media does not include WiFi, trackpad, or touchscreen drivers. Every operating system has issues and operating systems that don't work for some people may work for others. From this thread alone, I can guarantee you that there are at least two people in this world for whom Linux supported their hardware out of the box.
  - wruza 2y ago
    What laptops are you on? I can guarantee you that there are at least two people in this world for whom Linux supported their hardware out of the box There are lots of people for whom it’s true, cause there’s a lot of hardware either old and stable enough to be supported, or Thinkpad. “Old” doesn’t mean bad hardware, but it’s not everyone’s or “DO IT” hardware either. Either way, people who say “do it” often forget to mention either the issues (both hw and sw) or which hardware they are using. Props to ggp for specifying their laptop model, but I still would like to know if sleep works for them cause that’s the first point I’m skeptical at. We can’t just logical-or all the good experiences from different people, it doesn’t work like that. Of course working sleep doesn’t erase all the sw issues an average linux desktop user will have. But let’s be honest and not fanboy-ish. I like linux much much more for servers and as a set of system idioms. But its Desktop side is plagued by all sorts of long-standing problems, including low quality software that breaks itself regularly or has unfixable “nuances” reasoned from buggy to delusional. The base GNU/Linux system is absolutely fine and stable and reliable (software-wise). But you can think of Modern Linux Desktop as a sort a slap-over patch that isn’t Linux spirited at all. And when you point these out, the happy welcoming tone often changes from “it just works” to “you get what you paid for, feel free to patch” then to “it’s their project, they are free to reject patches”, then to just crickets.
    - II2II 2y ago
      A Lenovo that is so low-end and generic that they don't even bother assigning it a coherent model name/number and a Lenovo Yoga 7. To be blunt, I am on the other side of the fence: I am quite skeptical when people make blanket statements about Linux not working. One of the benefits of open source is the ability to distribute software with few restrictions. One of the benefits of many Linux distributions is the frequent update cycle. Those two factors mean there is a fairly strong possibility that hardware will work straight after installation. Of course there are exceptions. Some hardware simply isn't supported. It is also possible choose a distribution, like Arch, where the end user is expected to configure almost everything themselves. That said, Windows isn't exactly great on this front either. While the hardware is likely supported, manually installing drivers can be intensive. End user applications, including things like the desktop environment, are an entirely different situation. Here too, I am skeptical of blanket statements. The biggest hurdle is a lack of familiarity: most people are brought up on Windows. They expect software to work as it does under Windows. I'm on the other side of the fence. Having used Linux for over a quarter of a century, I expect software to work as it does under Linux. I can assure you that I have as many problems with Windows as most Windows users have with Linux. As for bugs: Windows applications have those too. The big difference is that you paid for them and there is a relatively low chance they will ever be patched. Granted, I am not advocating for open source software based on the ability of end users being able to patch bugs. Almost no one does, because almost everyone realizes that most end users lack the skills to do so.
- myaccountonhn 2y ago
  Thinkpad T480s - yes all of those work. As for choosing a distro: Fedora with Gnome worked 100% out of the box. I’ve even been able to play a bunch of games on steam without issue too.

everfree 2y ago

> I have a local AI analysing everything I do on my Mac, iPhone whatever Which feature is this? I must not fully understand what Apple Intelligence does. I thought it was just for summarizing notifications, editing text and generating images. I didn't realize that it analyzes everything you do on your device and builds a profile. Where can I read more about that?

therealmarv 2y ago
To be honest I have not done a deep research and I would not trust research on this topic unless it's done by a third party analysing all aspects of Apple Intelligence. So take everything with little grain of salt. But to give you a prominent example of what Apple devices do currently (and for example Android does not): It analyses with local AI all your images on your device. So there is clearly a classification happening here on every image you saved. A worst case scenario: You downloaded an illegal image by mistake (of what nature whatever), local AI indentifies it. You get reported to authorities for doing illegal things. Apple and phone helps police. And now just imagine all sort of other AI analysis e.g. on your Apple notes etc. and do your own conclusion. Apple says: no, we won't do that. Well maybe I feel safer if the technology for allowing to do such things is not even on my device or activated at all. The line of protection of my privacy lies a little bit too much in Apple's hands in my opinion. I don't like it and I don't trust on device AI.
- commandersaki 2y ago
  You know this isn’t limited to AI. For example just having the option of iCloud could mean your data could sync unencrypted to Apples hands even without turning it on - if Apple were to be surreptitious. So in that regard I don’t see why AI is the new boogeyman.