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Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

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Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#301

Post by gazby »

neverminder wrote: post #201

Desktop - Ubuntu 20.04. Everything works and my requirements are quite advanced - bunch of games on Steam, pro level audio production studio just to mention a few things. Laptop - Dell Precision 7750, Xeon CPU, 64 GB RAM, bought with Ubuntu pre-installed. Beast of a laptop, superior thermals, wipes the floor with a mac. Phone - Google Pixel. I consider that a lesser evil choice to Apple's walled garden. It's rooted,…

I have the 7550 (15 inch version of the 7750), also with 20.04 on it (Dell shipped it with 18.04 though) and am also very happy with it, so +1 there.

I also have an Android tablet and Android phone running LineageOS without Google Play Services, and piggy-back off the SO's Google Maps when we're going places. F-Droid is fantastic here and, where needed, proprietary apps (Slack, Discord etc) can be installed via Aurora with various limited functionality (e.g. no notifications from either of those apps).

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#302

Post by bastardoperator »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26

To be honest... None. It's a choice. You might wholly disagree, but recent events aren't enough to get me to switch yet, because I think the competition has too many tradeoffs. I can get my photos scanned against a CSAM database... or I can have Google tracking my location constantly regardless of what they say (as they've been proven to be misleading in the past)... or I can use a Linux phone and say goodbye to batt…

This^

For me it boils down to ecosystem and integration. I can have a fragmented set of devices and tools, or I can deal with CSAM having literally zero impact on me.

I also have an M1 laptop, it's insane that this little MacBook Air with 16GB ram is walking all over a 16'inch Macbook Pro with 64GB ram.

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#303

Post by [deleted] »

neverminder wrote: post #201

Desktop - Ubuntu 20.04. Everything works and my requirements are quite advanced - bunch of games on Steam, pro level audio production studio just to mention a few things. Laptop - Dell Precision 7750, Xeon CPU, 64 GB RAM, bought with Ubuntu pre-installed. Beast of a laptop, superior thermals, wipes the floor with a mac. Phone - Google Pixel. I consider that a lesser evil choice to Apple's walled garden. It's rooted,…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#304

Post by twobitshifter »

sigmar wrote: post #94
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has been scanning photos for CSAM for... what, almost a decade now? Also, as an iPhone user, contrary to the recent Hacker News fight, I actually view this CSAM scanning with a sign of hope, because this hints that we could get end-to-end encryption on iCloud Storage. The CSAM scanning is rumored to be just a prerequisite to get the government to shut up with their biggest critique of E2E, so that Apple can th…

Oh yes, I'm sure the FBI will be satisfied with using the backdoor to only find CSAM, they definitely will not use the access for 'anti-terrorism' and drug enforcement. That sounds just like the FBI. What good is E2E encryption when they can scan your client with a backdoor? All Apple is doing with this hashing is giving themselves plausible deniability when this access gets abused down the road. "Oh we didn't know t…

Doesn’t Apple have a front door to change your phone at the FBI behest? Weren’t they already able to upload data (telemetry etc)? It doesn’t make sense to pretend that there was an existing state where Apple couldn’t get data off your phone if the FBI ordered surveillance.

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#305

Post by ostenning »

karlzt wrote: post #50

Desktop: Arch Linux Phone: Pinephone At the end of this article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7e77y/the-dollar149-smartph... "But even without those changes, this device could be enough to kickstart a Linux-driven mobile revolution."

Linux needs a decent productivity suite of apps (preview, mail, calendar etc) the current offering is terrible

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#306

Post by croutonwagon »

ChemSpider wrote: post #283
macksd wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of the two, which government do I think is more evil? China's. Which government do I, a permanent resident of America, think could more immediately make my life harder by being able to invade my privacy? America's.

Well, as somebody who has travel to China for business, I would not touch any Chinese hardware or OS at all. In the US and EU you have a working legal system.

Thats moving the goalposts a bit though. The question wasnt in the context of those that go to, travel through or deal with Chinese government on the regular.

But rather in the context of those in America that largely only deal with American government officials and those outcomes.

And to my knowledge. China isnt abducting people or conduction renditions on american soil.

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#307

Post by kwerk »

prophesi wrote: post #84

For those who want to keep using their Apple devices, I highly recommend Nextcloud as an iCloud Photos alternative. I've been running an instance of it on a little Pine64 for quite some time now without any issues. Though I'll still the say the crux of the issue is that the majority of users _won't_ have iCloud Photos disabled, and thus have their privacy violated.

How large is your photo library / how would you compare NextCloud photos to Apple Photos? I'm starting with testing Synology Photos which has at least basic local people tagging (a must with small kids). Feels like a big tradeoff with all the self-hosted options. I've heard NextCloud is slow. PhotoPrism looks awesome but no mobile client (yet) which makes family adoption tricky.

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#308

Post by username91 »

neverminder wrote: post #201

Desktop - Ubuntu 20.04. Everything works and my requirements are quite advanced - bunch of games on Steam, pro level audio production studio just to mention a few things. Laptop - Dell Precision 7750, Xeon CPU, 64 GB RAM, bought with Ubuntu pre-installed. Beast of a laptop, superior thermals, wipes the floor with a mac. Phone - Google Pixel. I consider that a lesser evil choice to Apple's walled garden. It's rooted,…

May I ask what software you use for pro audio production? I'm looking for an alternative to Logic. Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#310

Post by Retric »

therealmarv wrote: post #280
redisman wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it funny how many people pick a random Chinese phone in their bid for privacy (???)

What I think is funny: There are more privacy for consumer laws for Chinese tech companies in China than for US tech companies in USA! It's wild west essentially in USA in this regard. I'm sure what Apple is doing is also against the European Union's GDPR privacy laws. US is missing out here...

GDPR specifically excludes law enforcement so it doesn’t apply here. The sad thing is Apple was legally required to allow law enforcement to search iCloud backups before they implemented this system, so nothing fundamentally changed.

However, after this backlash you can bet other manufacturers will continue to hide what their actually doing.

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