Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
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Re: Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
#2This is only in the beta so far though, right? I’m not sure how durable this stuff is generally in the beta releases, but there hasn’t been any official announcement or guarantee it won’t be reinserted?
Re: Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
#3Nice to see that Apple isn't so big that it doesn't think it has to listen to reasonable/rational public feedback that it is making poor decisions.
Now, if they could empower lower levels to make these decisions before the issues blow up in the wider world context, all the better.
Re: Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
#4Prediction: this will somehow still be spun as Apple wanting to own your Mac even though you bought it and turn it into an iDevice.
Re: Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
#5Nice to see that Apple isn't so big that it doesn't think it has to listen to reasonable/rational public feedback that it is making poor decisions. Now, if they could empower lower levels to make these decisions before the issues blow up in the wider world context, all the better.
This happened so quickly I suspect there was never a decision for or against. Pretty likely a boneheaded engineer did what us boneheaded engineers do and cut corners, likely with all of the fun boneheaded management and deadlines that come along for the ride.
Why, you might ask, would this be a matter of cutting corners? Well, fault tolerance is hard. What happens when the OS can’t reach external services it depends on for security features? Well, Apple found out recently in quite an embarrassing way. Given the almost immutable yearly release cycle, I would be astonished if they didn’t just duct tape some whitelist in because a more resilient solution wasn’t ready.
Re: Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
#6Nice to see that Apple isn't so big that it doesn't think it has to listen to reasonable/rational public feedback that it is making poor decisions. Now, if they could empower lower levels to make these decisions before the issues blow up in the wider world context, all the better.
Given how they have been always marketing on the privacy aspect, and this exception they made for themselves has been found out and shown to be bad for privacy, I'm not surprised.
Re: Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
#7Nice to see that Apple isn't so big that it doesn't think it has to listen to reasonable/rational public feedback that it is making poor decisions. Now, if they could empower lower levels to make these decisions before the issues blow up in the wider world context, all the better.
Having worked at Apple and other big companies it's almost always Engineers and PMs making these decisions. It's not like Tim Cook or Craig Federighi is running around demanding people add Apple apps to a firewall exclusion list. They have much bigger things to worry about.
It's just that as an engineer you are often in a bubble and can't foresee every implication of your decision. That's why Apple has the Developer and Public Beta releases for iOS/OSX so that external users can provide feedback. And on this occasion just like on many other they will take action if necessary.
Re: Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
#8Prediction: this will somehow still be spun as Apple wanting to own your Mac even though you bought it and turn it into an iDevice.
No, as someone who does often criticize Apple for taking away control from their users, this is a good move.
Their original action that triggered this was them wanting to own your Mac.
Re: Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
#9Nice to see that Apple isn't so big that it doesn't think it has to listen to reasonable/rational public feedback that it is making poor decisions. Now, if they could empower lower levels to make these decisions before the issues blow up in the wider world context, all the better.
Curious why you phrased Apple listening to their customers in such a negative way. Maybe from pessimism bias?
I observe a lot of HN commenters don't vibe with how Apple controls & develops their ecosystem. Yet, instead of go elsewhere, complaining and acting like being oh so very special enough to know how things should be done is preferred; while expecting a major company to just cater to their personal whims.
I'm unsure if it's entitlement I'm witnessing or just people that feel like they have no faith in Apple's competition at making anything better than Apple currently has.
Re: Apple removes first-party firewall exemption in macOS 11.2 beta 2
#10very nice - this was one of my main contentions on Big Sur.
Will upgrade once 11.2 is stable :)