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Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

stallman.org

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Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#21

Post by tokyodude »

why_only_15 wrote: post #7

Apple doesn't really spy on users imo. Internally, the privacy team is quite powerful and forces lots of safeguards about how exactly data can be used.

Same with Google. Google has privacy teams as well which are

> quite powerful and forces lots of safeguards about how exactly data can be used.

Apple recommends apps based on other apps I've downloaded. So does Google. Apple recommends music based on other music I've played. So does Google. Apple recommends books and movies as well based on similar data. So does Google. Apple keeps track of every placed your Apple devices have been. So does Google. Apple doesn't share this data. Neither does Google.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#22

Post by mk_chan »

badpun wrote: post #8
weavie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily just big corporations. https://stallman.org/pay-toilets.html

Regarding his argument against paid toilets: can’t this be said about any other basic neccesity? I.e. don’t pay for food, because some people can’t afford it - so food should be free.

Not necessarily because the alternative: urinating on public property not designated for that purpose, is illegal.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#23

Post by anoncake »

badpun wrote: post #8
weavie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily just big corporations. https://stallman.org/pay-toilets.html

Regarding his argument against paid toilets: can’t this be said about any other basic neccesity? I.e. don’t pay for food, because some people can’t afford it - so food should be free.

The difference is that using a toilet has neglible marginal cost.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#24

Post by jpdus »

Wow - regardless of whether one agrees with RMS, alone the fact that this submission has been heavily flagged already (and will thus drop from the frontpage soon) tells you a lot about the power of Apple and their fans here.

HN urgently needs to address the flagging problems, this has been the case for many important but controversial topics recently and leads to a degraded quality of frontpage submissions in my view.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#25

Post by hellofunk »

> Apple practices tax avoidance using loopholes and lobbying.

He’s cherry picking things here that really don’t have anything to do specifically with Apple. Amazon paid zero taxes last year and they had more income than nearly any company in the world. Google is also quite famous for the loopholes it finds. I’m not sure it’s fair to single out Apple specifically for this.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#26

Post by tokyodude »

gowld wrote: post #14
badpun wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding his argument against paid toilets: can’t this be said about any other basic neccesity? I.e. don’t pay for food, because some people can’t afford it - so food should be free.

What's interesting about stallman is that he is zealous about his philosophy, but like all philosophies, his philosophy is inconsistent when you take it to its logical extremes. (See the paradox of closed source microwaves). Stallman's philosophy is a veneer over utilitarianism and assumption that the computer is a unique construct in society -- software should be libre because libre software provides the most value…

I know of no security benefits to closed platforms. I know many people believe one platform that happens to be closed, iOS, is more secure than some other platforms but I've seen no evidence that it's more secure because it's closed. In fact, the platform that's generally considered the least secure, Windows, is also closed.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#27

Post by viraptor »

badpun wrote: post #8
weavie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily just big corporations. https://stallman.org/pay-toilets.html

Regarding his argument against paid toilets: can’t this be said about any other basic neccesity? I.e. don’t pay for food, because some people can’t afford it - so food should be free.

At some level - why not? Getting enough food not to starve shouldn't require having money. That's what food banks, soup kitchens, etc. are about. It doesn't mean luxury food, just like the public toilets are basic.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#28

Post by Un1corn »

rbrbr wrote: post #10

I would like to see the same details about google / android and microsoft / windows from the author of this comprehensive list. And his conclusion what to use as an OS considering all.

The author does have a page about Google[0] and Microsoft[1]. He doesn't draw a conclusion in those separate pages but you can see how he uses computers in another page[2].

[0] https://stallman.org/google.html

[1] https://stallman.org/microsoft.html

[2] https://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#29

Post by hellofunk »

jpdus wrote: post #24

Wow - regardless of whether one agrees with RMS, alone the fact that this submission has been heavily flagged already (and will thus drop from the frontpage soon) tells you a lot about the power of Apple and their fans here. HN urgently needs to address the flagging problems, this has been the case for many important but controversial topics recently and leads to a degraded quality of frontpage submissions in my view…

I have not flagged this article, partly because I’m curious to see the debate here. But I’m sure those who have flagged it did so because this article is not objective, this is a very extremist position with a lot of cherry picked arguments that are obviously from a personal bias he has against Apple.

Many of the points he is specifically isolating for Apple are quite true of most of the big tech firms.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#30

Post by Hello71 »

hellofunk wrote: post #25

> Apple practices tax avoidance using loopholes and lobbying. He’s cherry picking things here that really don’t have anything to do specifically with Apple. Amazon paid zero taxes last year and they had more income than nearly any company in the world. Google is also quite famous for the loopholes it finds. I’m not sure it’s fair to single out Apple specifically for this.

I believe Stallman is well known for calling Amazon's Kindle the "Swindle". I assume he has some other derogatory name for Google.
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