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We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

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Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation on that admission?

I was intrigued by that as well, so I did some digging and turned up the transcript of the “Microsoft Fiscal Year 2019 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call”: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/events/FY-2019/earn... . If you search through that for “Hacker News” you’ll find Satya saying: In fact this morning I was reading a news article in Hacker News, which is a community where we have been working hard to m…

Hmm... I don't take from this that they're "gaming" HN, moreso that they understand that the product has to be well-regarded here.

The comment that started this chain has a tone that implies otherwise, which is why I asked. Seems like a nothing-burger to me.

Edit: "ton" -> "tone"

Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When they originally brought out the feature, it supported the new phones but the OS update was also made available for older models that were outside of warranty since Apple continue to support their hardware years after release. Simply doing nothing and letting the batteries in the older models degrade further would cause them to reboot more and become unusable. Surely this would drive sales more? Isn’t supporting…

Its a circle of planned obsolescence. Battery gets old, so they degrade phone performance. There's no way for you to change that. They get sued, lose, and maliciously comply by making a switch that maybe causes your phone to reboot randomly. Its all formulated to think, 'I need to replace this'. Phone manufacturers should be forced to unlock their phones, release drivers and provide user replaceable batteries. Then y…

I don’t follow this logic at all. If they had simply done nothing the phones would have rebooted randomly when the batteries degraded. Why go through the whole process at all if they wanted you to replace the phone? The random brownouts would be annoying enough to make you do that anyway.

There’s a reason this whole thing was dubbed “batterygate” - it was to do with one thing - the battery.

Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#163
post #2

Although it's always good news to have Linux on more device, in the case of Apple I find it a bit problematic. That means you encourage Apple getting a huge cut on device sale. Or further justify the high prices of second-hand device because now you can 'give them a second-life' (to counter Apple's in-house planned obsolescence program). It's not just about freedom. Apple's walled-garden means you need in every compa…

It beats devices going into the landfill or being scrapped, this gives millions of machines a second lease on life. For people who for instance can't afford anything else.

Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#164

Why does this have to be so hard? Just open your shit up, Apple. The majority of people will still use your walled garden. The rest of us will buy your hardware if you release drivers, etc.

Even though android is more open, it's not exactly in much better shape. It's nearly impossible to do anything useful with mainline Linux on most Android devices because the SoC vendors don't upstream anything since their entire financial model is sell new chip every 6 months.

If Linux provided a stable driver interface then they wouldn’t need to upstream.

Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn’t say that’s what they were doing. Now they do. The feature still exists today on brand new phones.

That 'feature' is planned obsolescence. They're degrading your phone, without an easy way to fix it (user replaceable batteries). You will dislike the experience and be encouraged indirectly to buy a new one. Planned obsolescence.

Without this feature an old phone can crash when the battery gets down to 30% capacity

Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the EU will soon help them with that... "EU Planning to Force Apple to Give Developers Access to All Hardware and Software Features" : https://www.macrumors.com/2022/05/20/eu-plans-to-force-apple...

As long as they don't maliciously comply, that would start a renaissance period, in my opinion. Suddenly, they'd be the good guys, instead of the worst offenders. Everyone who wants to use the pure apple system can, everyone who wants to tinker can. Perfect world.

It is not perfect in the sense once the fence is off those who just want to be in walled garden and pay big money for it is not.

There is no perfect world for all. There could be a perfect world for each one. That is a difference. And yours may not be mine.

Just ask someone to compete with apple and get to the same level. Not killing one perfect world for many (most likely not really reader here it seemed) without creating a better tomorrow.

If you just think of tinker, before you know it china will take over say … or Russia … and we will have cheap but et-phone-home before you have a choice. Btw apple is dead. Cry your beloved apple then? No.

Ps. Just in case of doubt I hack my iphone and iPads if I can to do other things. It is my old device that is ignored … but not for all.

Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#167

I'm so excited. I want to use an old Ipad that has a failing battery as a home automation screen. Poor iOS APIs mean developers can't create good kiosk apps to do simple things like control system settings, lock screen and so many more things that I resorted to an Android tablet. This is finally going to make it possible and turn junk into gold.

A web app that is added to the home screen will do what you want. Create a simple web app (or use someone else's) then in safari click the share button and "Add To Homescreen". Boom, you have a full screen app experience with no App Store. It's not a kiosk as you can press the home button to exit but if it's for your own use that should be fine.

Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#168

It's painful that for whatever reason these projects always tend to get built around old devices rather than more recent models, basically shooting themselves in the foot. Hard to garner excitement from more general crowds running something on an iPhone 5 than it would be 10/11/12 etc. Less people to become interested in contributing.

> for whatever reason these projects always tend to get built around old devices rather than more recent models

It’s because the new devices haven’t been cracked open enough to work on yet. Tough to port Linux to a device with a locked bootloader. On the Android phone side even if the bootloader is unlocked it takes a lot of time and effort to write or port drivers.

Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#169

Why does this have to be so hard? Just open your shit up, Apple. The majority of people will still use your walled garden. The rest of us will buy your hardware if you release drivers, etc.

I don't know anything about these. But would opening up iPhone make it easier for authoritarian governments like China to install backdoors on your iPhone?

Re: We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

#170

Why does this have to be so hard? Just open your shit up, Apple. The majority of people will still use your walled garden. The rest of us will buy your hardware if you release drivers, etc.

Oh yeah I'd she'll out in an instant for an iPad if I could put android on it.
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