Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

theregister.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 369 posts

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#231

Post by armada651 »

pjmlp wrote: post #195
armada651 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the primary business reason game consoles are locked town is to make it harder to play unlicensed commercial games on them. Which is user-hostile. The user bought the hardware, so they should be allowed to play whatever they please. Hiding the true cost of the hardware by inflating game prices using licensing fees is monopolistic and an attempt at misleading the consumer. This is the exact same business model a…

Most of the time people aren't stupid, if they care about where they are spending their money they aren't buying devices on the split of a second and complaining later.

People aren't stupid but there is no way to escape this bussiness model unless you go to PC. And the PC is only begrudgingly still an open platform. If something is ever going to successfully replace the PC it will be a walled garden as well.

I am appalled by how easily people dismiss the importance of open platforms as insecure and inconvenient. How will people ever learn technical skills if all the technology they own is locked down and glued shut?

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#233

Post by iteratethis »

kelnos wrote: post #75
frosting1337 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean the author explains his thoughts in the article, you should read it again.

The author's thoughts don't make sense, though. He's expecting a locked-down tablet appliance to suit the same needs and use cases as a laptop running a general-purpose OS. Or at best, he's not expecting that, but is at least complaining about it, which feels a little pointless. He can get what he wants by buying a new Mac, as he suggests. It's not like what he wants doesn't exist. He's just complaining that some oth…

"He's expecting a locked-down tablet appliance to suit the same needs and use cases as a laptop running a general-purpose OS."

Which is a perfectly valid complaint since it doesn't need to be locked down. It's an entirely artificial limitation. An iPad pro is like selling a Ferrari that can only turn left at 30mph.

I don't understand the "buy something else" mentality. Freedom of computing on hardware you own used to be core to the tech community, but I guess it's now cooler to side with monopolists.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#234

Post by armada651 »

GeekyBear wrote: post #170
armada651 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the primary business reason game consoles are locked town is to make it harder to play unlicensed commercial games on them. Which is user-hostile. The user bought the hardware, so they should be allowed to play whatever they please. Hiding the true cost of the hardware by inflating game prices using licensing fees is monopolistic and an attempt at misleading the consumer. This is the exact same business model a…

If there were no way to know in advance if you were buying a gaming appliance or a gaming computer, you might have a point. Some people prefer the simplicity and reliability of an appliance. Some people embrace complexity in the name of having the freedom to do anything (including the freedom to shoot yourself in the foot). The notion that consumers shouldn't be allowed to make decisions that are different than your…

> The notion that consumers shouldn't be allowed to make decisions that are different than your own... THAT is user hostile.

Having the choice is fine, but if there's no way to opt-out then it's not a choice. While far from perfect the Xbox One is a good example of the video game platform that offers an opt-out. And it works, it is one of the most secure gaming consoles on the market and yet it still offers consumers the ability to create their own game software for it.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#235

Post by skc »

Remember Jobs coining the phrase "Post PC era". Good times.

There was a period of about two, maybe three years where you saw nothing but tablets outdoors.

Now it's very rare for me to see someone tapping away at an iPad out in the wild, all I see are laptops.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#236

Post by m01 »

troad wrote: post #66
tombert wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, unless you work in software or extremely high-budget movies, Linux is a pretty tough sell. A lot of the "mainstream" apps simply do not exist on Linux. LibreOffice isn't so bad, but most people simply want Microsoft Office. Lightworks is decent software, but most people want Adobe Premiere. Gimp is alright but most people want Photoshop, etc. This isn't to say that Linux software "worse", I actually like Ligh…

LibreOffice is pretty bad. It doesn't tend to hold up past very basic use, and that use case has long since been taken by Google Docs. For serious work - e.g. legal services word processing, or many accounting workflows - LibreOffice doesn't hold a candle to Excel and Word. The problem with desktop Linux software is that it generally doesn't have the demands put on it that would push it to develop competitively, so i…

I'm curious, do you maybe have an example for each of the "legal services work processing" and "accounting workflows" that LibreOffice can't handle?

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#237

Post by walterbell »

p0w3n3d wrote: post #223

I dub the distinction between a tablet and a laptop fake. Tbh they are running the same hardware. I started with Android and first things I did on my phones was to install terminal and ssh. Later it became impossible, because of the changes that were being imposed by Google ("for the sake of my safety"). What I valued Android over IOS was to have access to my files (like DVD-dumped futurama) that I could watch on the…

> Android over IOS.. access to my files

Apple eventually surrendered and exposed a file system via the "Files" app, but it's woefully neglected. Google is adding Debian Linux VM to Android, hopefully Apple will come to their senses and re-enable VMs on iOS, even if it's buried in Accessibility settings to avoid scaring non-technical users. Until then, iOS users have iSH (syscall emulation) CLI to slowly run Alpine Linux and manipulate files.

> MY BROWSER WEASLED ME OUT

iOS Safari has a setting to send desktop/MacOS User Agent string, but cloud services have a range of techniques for device fingerprinting.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#238

Post by rectang »

mullingitover wrote: post #140
onceler wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except in this metaphor, the "ebike" has en engine as powerful as a new "landcruiser", and attachment points that could allow quickly/easily adding extra seating or cargo capacity. That such a thing seems absurd illustrates how poorly the metaphor fits. The only reason that "iPads are just unserious computing devices for real work" is because Apple chooses to limit them. I have a laptop which I only rarely use as a l…

It's really a fundamental design limitation of iOS/iPadOS (same thing, let's face it). It's ground-up a super efficient, wonderful media consumption platform. It's really good for media consumption, like so much so it's kind of a problem . So I think the metaphor still fits, in that sure the ebike has a crazy engine but the tires don't have the contact patch to make the engine nearly as useful. The problem is the UI…

Drawing is better on my tablet, an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil. I also like StaffPad’s Apple Pencil interface for entering music notation better than anything using a trackpad or mouse. And I like taking handwritten notes using Quicknotes and the Apple Pencil, especially when I need to move around.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#239

Post by ljm »

davemp wrote: post #133
onceler wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except in this metaphor, the "ebike" has en engine as powerful as a new "landcruiser", and attachment points that could allow quickly/easily adding extra seating or cargo capacity. That such a thing seems absurd illustrates how poorly the metaphor fits. The only reason that "iPads are just unserious computing devices for real work" is because Apple chooses to limit them. I have a laptop which I only rarely use as a l…

Let’s not pretend that Apple could come up with some sort of dual windowing system (or just dual boot) scheme. We’re not limited by drive space anymore. They don’t because it would hurt macbook sales.

Given how much of a premium Apple charges for storage, it's still a limitation even if not a technical one.

Re: Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

#240

Post by walterbell »

beeflet wrote: post #171
trog wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they don't because they've seen what happens when Microsoft tried to build an OS that was both touch screen and mouse & keyboard.

It works pretty nicely on linux, you have "mobile" environments like phosh, KDE mobile and that are pretty seamless between handheld and docked "desktop" usage. They have support in app toolkits like gtk and qt for applications that change based on screen size to accommodate mobile users. It's pretty nice: https://tuxphones.com/convergent-linux-phone-apps/ The reason why it didn't work for microsoft is because adobe,…

In addition, Android apps and Debian Linux VM can co-exist on the same mobile display and there are rumors of desktop convergence between Android and ChromeOS on Chromebooks.
Post reply on HN