4 ms·

> They didn't start locking things down until the iPhone. They sure have tried since forever though. My uncle complained about Apple for this very reason ~20y

by frizlab 7mo ago

> They didn't start locking things down until the iPhone. They sure have tried since forever though. My uncle complained about Apple for this very reason ~20y ago…

embedding-shape 7mo ago
Before the iPhone, what was their attempts at that? I remember using OSX a bunch before the iPhone was public, but never remember any of the ways they tried to lock it down, I might have been too young then.
- pram 7mo ago
  "locked down" is a vague, moving target. The criticisms of pre-OSX MacOS was that it was an operating system for little babies, and not serious tech enthusiasts and power users. Also they were too expensive, and you can build a PC that is 100000x more powerful for cheaper. This literally hasn't changed.
  - wazdra 7mo ago
    Are you being sarcastic? This has definitely changed with Apple Silicon. Looking at hardware value, the M-series are way more competitive than the Intel macs ever were, and if you want to run an LLM locally, they are undefeated. However, it is quite ironic that while the value of their hardware has sharply increased, their software has become the slop that everyone is complaining about.
  - NoNoisle 7mo ago
    Uh where’s the cheaper MacBook neo that is 100000x more powerful?
    - pram 7mo ago
      it’s sarcasm
    - queenkjuul 7mo ago
      So you think people are building their own laptops?
- iSnow 7mo ago
  Their previous lock-downs were on the hardware level, not offering ISA slots and stuff. The original Mac (then Mac+ and classic) had no expansion slots at all, and they started adding them only later.
  - vunderba 7mo ago
    Exactly. After the Apple II, it was a post-Woz world. There’s a reason Apple owns so many patents on proprietary types of screws...
  - olyjohn 7mo ago
    ADB ports only finally went away when USB came out. But I do have to give Apple credit, because those fruity-colored iMacs with the hockey puck mouse, that had only USB ports... those are really what got USB to become fully adopted. PCs had USB ports for a while before those came out, but nobody made any peripherals, probably because Windows had really crappy support for it... Once those fruity iMacs were released, then came the flood of USB stuff.
- KeplerBoy 7mo ago
  Getting music on an ipod was always a pain unless you bought the music on itunes or ripped a music CD directly with itunes (yes, that was an actual feature. hard to imagine these days). No simple drag and drop onto a mounted USB drive like all other mp3 players back in the day. Maybe more of a lock-in attempt instead of lock down, but related imo.
  - GeekyBear 7mo ago
    Anything you dropped into your computer's MP3 directory would sync to your iPod. It didn't matter where you got the music from. The restriction was that an iPod would only sync tracks from one computer at a time, which was a demand of the music rights holders.
  - fipar 7mo ago
    You can still rip CDs with Apple Music. In fact, that's the only use I have for that app (I recently lost a hard drive with music and I'm in the process of backing up all my CDs again).
  - FireBeyond 7mo ago
    > ripped a music CD directly with itunes (yes, that was an actual feature. hard to imagine these days). These days? Last week (though WMP). My retired father's old computer died, his new one, no CD slot. Emails me from Australia asking how to rip his CDs for his media player. He's not an audiophile but he's not a technophile (and his blues music collection is sufficiently large that at least one of the blues radio stations in his city will on occasion ask him to borrow something because they don't have it in their library. Told him to get a USB CD player and a card reader (his media player is on micro/SD).
drcongo 7mo ago
My uncle shouts at cats and thinks the CIA have an implant in his fillings, but I'm not claiming that as proof on HN.
mathgradthrow 7mo ago
wasn't that about when the iphone came out?
- frizlab 7mo ago
  First iPhone was 18 years ago, but yeah it around the time of the first iPhone. IIRC he actually mentioned that because he had already been confronted to Apple’s lockdown before the iPhone. It was a long time ago and I was young, so I don’t remember the details.
- bsimpson 7mo ago
  There was a decade between them.

by frizlab 7mo ago

> They didn't start locking things down until the iPhone. They sure have tried since forever though. My uncle complained about Apple for this very reason ~20y ago…

embedding-shape 7mo ago

Before the iPhone, what was their attempts at that? I remember using OSX a bunch before the iPhone was public, but never remember any of the ways they tried to lock it down, I might have been too young then.

pram 7mo ago
"locked down" is a vague, moving target. The criticisms of pre-OSX MacOS was that it was an operating system for little babies, and not serious tech enthusiasts and power users. Also they were too expensive, and you can build a PC that is 100000x more powerful for cheaper. This literally hasn't changed.
- wazdra 7mo ago
  Are you being sarcastic? This has definitely changed with Apple Silicon. Looking at hardware value, the M-series are way more competitive than the Intel macs ever were, and if you want to run an LLM locally, they are undefeated. However, it is quite ironic that while the value of their hardware has sharply increased, their software has become the slop that everyone is complaining about.
- NoNoisle 7mo ago
  Uh where’s the cheaper MacBook neo that is 100000x more powerful?
  - pram 7mo ago
    it’s sarcasm
  - queenkjuul 7mo ago
    So you think people are building their own laptops?
iSnow 7mo ago
Their previous lock-downs were on the hardware level, not offering ISA slots and stuff. The original Mac (then Mac+ and classic) had no expansion slots at all, and they started adding them only later.
- vunderba 7mo ago
  Exactly. After the Apple II, it was a post-Woz world. There’s a reason Apple owns so many patents on proprietary types of screws...
- olyjohn 7mo ago
  ADB ports only finally went away when USB came out. But I do have to give Apple credit, because those fruity-colored iMacs with the hockey puck mouse, that had only USB ports... those are really what got USB to become fully adopted. PCs had USB ports for a while before those came out, but nobody made any peripherals, probably because Windows had really crappy support for it... Once those fruity iMacs were released, then came the flood of USB stuff.
KeplerBoy 7mo ago
Getting music on an ipod was always a pain unless you bought the music on itunes or ripped a music CD directly with itunes (yes, that was an actual feature. hard to imagine these days). No simple drag and drop onto a mounted USB drive like all other mp3 players back in the day. Maybe more of a lock-in attempt instead of lock down, but related imo.
- GeekyBear 7mo ago
  Anything you dropped into your computer's MP3 directory would sync to your iPod. It didn't matter where you got the music from. The restriction was that an iPod would only sync tracks from one computer at a time, which was a demand of the music rights holders.
- fipar 7mo ago
  You can still rip CDs with Apple Music. In fact, that's the only use I have for that app (I recently lost a hard drive with music and I'm in the process of backing up all my CDs again).
- FireBeyond 7mo ago
  > ripped a music CD directly with itunes (yes, that was an actual feature. hard to imagine these days). These days? Last week (though WMP). My retired father's old computer died, his new one, no CD slot. Emails me from Australia asking how to rip his CDs for his media player. He's not an audiophile but he's not a technophile (and his blues music collection is sufficiently large that at least one of the blues radio stations in his city will on occasion ask him to borrow something because they don't have it in their library. Told him to get a USB CD player and a card reader (his media player is on micro/SD).

drcongo 7mo ago

My uncle shouts at cats and thinks the CIA have an implant in his fillings, but I'm not claiming that as proof on HN.

mathgradthrow 7mo ago

wasn't that about when the iphone came out?

frizlab 7mo ago
First iPhone was 18 years ago, but yeah it around the time of the first iPhone. IIRC he actually mentioned that because he had already been confronted to Apple’s lockdown before the iPhone. It was a long time ago and I was young, so I don’t remember the details.
bsimpson 7mo ago
There was a decade between them.