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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?

#321

Post by neverminder »

gazby wrote: post #301
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 Auror…

Dell Precision 7xxx line is easily the most advanced laptop with official linux support there is. Every person who bought it after I recommended this laptop was impressed. I've got Ubuntu 20.04 on mine and the only thing that doesn't work (yet) is the power button fingerprint reader which is a non-issue.

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

#322

Post by rcMgD2BwE72F »

mylons wrote: post #264
alangibson wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like QWERTY vs Dvorak. The best one is the one you're used to. I personally find Windows and iOS frustrating, but I know it's because I'm used to Linux and Android.

that’s not true. i just gave an example of switching from what i was used to, to something new that i thought was superior.

Why would fragmentation be a problem as an Android user?

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

#323

Post by mateuszf »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #189
mateuszf wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe a violation of TOS, but I guess it's one of these things that would not be enforced at all. Same way as Oracle can't do much about Google using Java or Microsoft doesn't do anything about Wine. Regarding the second point - that's true. I've heard there are some plans to add payments to the Aurora store/F-Droid (which are alternative app stores) but right now you can't use paid apps. I consider this to be a plus…

There isn't always an open-source alternative to what you need. Especially for people who use their computers for work.

True. That's why for work I still use a MBP. But I decided to separate work equipment/data/apps. That's a good thing to do anyway because of many reason.

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

#324

Post by scoopertrooper »

randomdata wrote: post #257
scoopertrooper wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a pedophile takes their computer (loaded with CP) to a repair shop and they find CP they call the police. If a pedophile uploads CP to the internet and the host finds CP they call the police. Both seem like reasonable responses to me.

Again, it is what happens after that which has people worried. Apple is simply bringing attention to it.

The police investigate the matter and a case might be brought to trial?

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

#325

Post by blakeinate »

svavs wrote: post #107
ByteWelder wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of Android flavours that don't have Google apps, like https://lineage.microg.org/ In my limited experience so far, LineageOS works much better than it used to on my HTC Desire. Battery life has been better than any of my iPhones (3G, 4S, 5S, 7 and XS) ever had. That said, if I had to chose between a Google Android phone and an Apple phone, I'd still pick the Apple one. Luckily there are more choices…

I haven't used Android as a daily phone since the EVO (I know, its been a while). One issue I had with Android and custom firmware was the time involved. Being on a computer all day, and often times at night, having to deal with tech support issues on my device is a hard stop (for me, personally, plenty of people love it). That's the nice part of Apple's ecosystem - its pretty simple and requires minimum intervention…

As someone who had an Evo with custom FW back in the day, I can attest the process is much simpler in recent years. If you do your research and ensure the device you are purchasing has official lineage support, the entire setup procsss takes less than an hour. Lineage includes built in update support as well, although to upgrade between major versions you still need to use a computer if I remember correctly.

I purchased my first iPhone since the 3G this year, and it is currently for sale on swappa. I am willing to compromise on a slightly less polished UI and subpar camera to get the UX of android back; at least for me, iOS was lacking many features I could consider essential.

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

#326

Post by fsflover »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #319
swozey wrote: post #165

Hackernews is by far the worst place to ever come for this advice. You're going to get the range of basically "use emacs, newb" to stupidly random Ebay laptops nobody has heard of. Roll your own thing and don't worry about what others use. I use void linux and I would never use hn for *nix advice.

I agree here as well. Criticism of linux here is like condemning Jesus at times. I just use windows cause it's easy and everything almost always works on it.

Nobody doubts that Windows works flawlessly on Windows-certified hardware. Same with Linux (on Linux-certified hardware). As a bonus, you get no tracking and no adware in the latter.

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

#327

Post by randomdata »

scoopertrooper wrote: post #324
randomdata wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, it is what happens after that which has people worried. Apple is simply bringing attention to it.

The police investigate the matter and a case might be brought to trial?

As it turns out, people don't like having to deal with police, nor do they like the idea of potentially losing a trial (especially in the court of public opinion).

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

#329

Post by mateuszf »

donohoe wrote: post #289
mateuszf wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's an evil but it's still the least among evils. Nope, you can use a degoogled android. There's still a matter of hardware that's not open but there's not much we can do that without sacrificing a lot of usability.

Yeah, but you're still stuck with Android. Thats just an insecure mess right there.

It depends on the ROM. I've heard good about GrapheneOS. It was even recommended by Snowden.

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1175430722733129729?s=09

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

#330

Post by nzealand »

djrogers wrote: post #128
ByteWelder wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it was well thought-out. Apple betrayed my trust as a consumer and the response in the past week was plain gaslighting. I thought about it for a couple of days and then decided that I don't want to support a company like that anymore. (edit)I was planning to buy a new MBP/iPhone/Watch in Q4, so this made it easier to decide on those purchases earlier.(/edit) It's correct that the CSAM scanning is currently on…

> The backdoor might be inactive for now, but there would still be a backdoor on my phone The key (from Apple's POV) is that this is done on your device, so the model can be audited, and users will know if it changes or is suddenly enabled where it wasn't before. Apple has documented the entire threat model and their design decisions realted to each threat vector. It's worth reading the document, as it becomes pretty…

> If CSAM scanning is going to (or is already) mandatory, I vastly prefer Apple's method here.

This is such a good point. The US government has been heavily pushing for backdoors, and can gag discussion under threat of national security.

It also seems counter productive to punish the one corporation who is apparently being transparent about this. Nobody here likes marketing BS, but this reaction here on HN is why we get marketing BS instead of technical details.

Edit: Legally, these searches do not violate the 4th amendment because the government pretends hash scans are entirely voluntary. Most ISPs and email companies "voluntarily" choose to hash match. I can't remember the specifics, but ISPs that refuse to do this have been threatened with legal action.

https://www.bjcl.org/blog/hashing-it-out-how-an-automated-cr...

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