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0 pointsstakhanov3y ago0 comments

But things are certainly moving in this direction, i.e. all forms of unsigned code, sideloading, and so forth being fully banned and devices flat-out refusing to run programs that didn't come from the store and where developers don't have commercial-grade relationships with Apple, with the commensurate amount of money and power being handed over.

Microsoft has been moving in that direction too, leaving the Microsoft store basically a ghost town. -- Maybe games are an exception to this, but even here, Microsoft is a distant second to Steam, who are putting as much of their weight as they practicably can behind Linux.

That's the power of the developer ecosystem. It wasn't users who did this to Microsoft, it was developers.

But, for some reason, developers seem to be unwilling to do to Apple and Google what they did to Microsoft, and I don't get that.

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ubermonkey3y ago

It isn’t, though. People love to SAY this, but I see no evidence that it’s actually true. To make the case that this is an “Apple” thing, you conflate the two very different platforms.

iOS is and always has been a walled garden. That’s fine. You either like that (I do) or you don’t (you probably don’t).

MacOS isn’t. It never has been, and there is no evidence that it’s going to become one.

Yes, the default setting is to require signed code. This is a good default! Most people who buy computers should probably leave that option turned on — but turning it off is very, very simple. It’s just a system preference. This is not evidence of Apple wanting to lock down the Mac. It’s evidence of an increasingly complex world of code, and the rise of malware.