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We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

konradybcio.pl

171–180 of 181 posts

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

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You keep parroting the term “planned obsolescence” over and over again in every comment but I do not think you understand what it actually means. Planned obsolescence is when the device becomes useless after a given amount of time. So to use the battery example, arguably a phone that ends up misbehaving or shutting down unexpectedly due to a failing battery without any mitigations is “useless” — it ceases to function…

They lost a lawsuit about it. They were engaging in planned obsolescence.

Yep. Law == fact. Always. 100% of the time. If the ruling says it's so. It's 100% so. Let it be written.

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

#172

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.

We already have this on Macbooks/Macs. macOS has SIP (System Integrity Protection) for example which you (Developers) can turn off to get full access. The average person does not even know this setting exists. So the solution is quite simple.

I'm afraid Apple will frustrate the process though; Like, if you turn off "SIP" on iOS, they will disable Apple Pay, everything related to DRM videos (including Netflix, etc), DRM music (including Spotify, etc.), all App Store purchases, and so on.

In other words, iOS becomes nearly unusable.

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

#173

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?

From a theoretical point of view, relying on security through obscurity is a bad thing. From a practical point of view, having obscured everything did not prevent people from finding many security vulnerabilities over the years.

Now, Apple devices are all manufactured in China so the relevant security services probably have access to all the schematics they need. Oh wait they don't need any shenanigans Apple is fully cooperating with chinese government and that's why they're so present on the chinese market, woops.

Slightly off-topic from the question, but if you're looking for authoritarian governments you don't need to look so far away from home, see also CoIntelPro/Snowden/etc (assuming you're from the USA). I agree authoritarianism and social control are a scale and we could do worse than Global North countries like France or USA, but we still have a pretty bad record of human rights overall and that should not be dismissed.

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

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It depends on the perspective. If you're concerned about security fixes and people being able to submit patches for the broken shit drivers manufacturers provide, then we still need the source and relevant schematics.

Of course if all you care about is "it boots" then having a binary blob lying around and doing god knows what with your entire computing is a "viable" option.

Not so long ago hardware vendors sold hardware and provided all schematics along... because that's what hardware manufacturers are for?! Nowadays they're more like a service provider trying to lock you into weird things and it's certainly not for the benefit of us users and maintainers. I think the issue was explained at length in this blog post called "Ok lenovo we need to talk":

https://www.haiku-os.org/blog/mmu_man/2021-10-04_ok_lenovo_w...

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

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d probably agree with you were it not for the fact that the “planned obsolescence” happened 18 months after the release of the iPhone 6S, but they then went on to give it a further 5.5 years of software updates. Maybe someone at Apple didn’t get the message?

Well they got sued for using planned obsolescence and lost. So theres not much to argue about, is there?

A cursory search would tell you that they didn’t lose anything.

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

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed. It's a sad state of affairs.

Have a look at GNU/Linux phones, Librem 5 and Pinephone.

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

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's a sad state of affairs.

Have a look at GNU/Linux phones, Librem 5 and Pinephone.

The problem is that they're both way behind the state of the art.

If the day to day experience of the device is still bad I'm not going to be carrying one on me. It gets relegated to yet another thing I can tinker with on the weekend, just like my pinebook pro.

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

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you just want a server, you can use an android phone already. Either pick one that works with postmarketOS, or termux could work fine (I don't know the overhead of that though). No point in using an iPhone here.

You could just buy a $2,000 2u rack mounted machine too... or you know, flash an old iphone you have sitting around with Linux.

When the project will be ready using an iPhone would make a lot of sense. My point was that it's currently not, but old Android phones do fine too.

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

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

From a theoretical point of view, relying on security through obscurity is a bad thing. From a practical point of view, having obscured everything did not prevent people from finding many security vulnerabilities over the years. Now, Apple devices are all manufactured in China so the relevant security services probably have access to all the schematics they need. Oh wait they don't need any shenanigans Apple is fully…

Living in one that can revolt vs one that does not is a matter of kind not scale.

Kind, not scale!

Just hope you know. Just wish you can feel it.

USA or western democratic is not heaven on earth. No. But there are hell on earth. And there is some basic human rights one should respect.

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