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The Cult of Mac exists for a reason.
The App Store was always authoritarian
31–40 of 111 posts
Re: The App Store was always authoritarian
#32Maybe it's not a great idea to allow a company to decide what software users can run, and I am inclined to believe that Murphy's Law will apply. Ultimately, software is freedom of speech.
Re: The App Store was always authoritarian
#33I don't think Google has handled Android particularly well, but you have to be on some 1990s Netscape kool-aid to think that the web is or should be "the primary way for users to experience computing". Computing is just one kind of online service, and despite decades of effort to attempt to force-fit all applications into a browser, sometimes just a damn program that runs natively on the CPU is a much better fit for…
I miss the native apps + Internet protocols of the 1990's, even though Web pays most of the bills, it should have stayed as an hypermedia documents platform.
Re: The App Store was always authoritarian
#34> Google is not creating moral distance between itself and Apple
I laughed out loud at this. Google lost two antitrust lawsuits this year alone.
Re: The App Store was always authoritarian
#35I just want to remind people that the alternative to authority is anarchy. No, not the utopian kind, Star Trek style. Think: Mad Max.
I’m trying to communicate with relatives of my partner while on holiday. We have iPhones, they all have Androids. We asked them to install “ChatGPT” because its voice mode is shockingly good at near-real-time translation.
When I type “ChatGPT” into the Apple App Store, the top hit is… drumroll… the very same, by OpenAI.
My uncle in law was struggling a bit on his phone and showed me what came up: a wall of fakes. Scam app after scam app, all with similar icons and similar names “GPT Talk”, “Chatty GTP”, and garbage like that.
Why would anyone want this?
Why would I prefer this?
Why would you… unless you’re an “app developer” working for… not the company that ought to be getting the first and only search result.
The problem here — specifically here on Hacker News — is that a lot of you work for those companies. Startups faking till they make it, engaging in guerrilla marketing, less then perfectly legal practices… hoping to be the next Uber or AirBnB by emulating them.
Politely, and with all due respect: Bugger off.
Your arguments come from unclean hands.
Most of the world likes the authority of the App Store.
If you don’t, if you’re vocal about “rules are bad!” it says volumes about you, not the rules and the people that enforce them.
Re: The App Store was always authoritarian
#36Heh, that’s all very cool and lots of smart words, but have you thought of children? Have you thought of elderly falling and unable to get up[1]? Surely you don’t want your fellow citizens to fall for Russian, Chinese, Another State Actor propaganda? State surveillance on unprecedented level? Don’t be paranoid! Surely a state actor would never abuse the power to snoop for your private photos[2]! Electronic waste? Duo…
> Surely you don’t want your fellow citizens to fall for Russian, Chinese, Another State Actor propaganda?
Centralized Appstore monopolies are best friends of the authoritarian governments. Both Google and Apple readily removed any app the local government points them to, saying that they are committed to working in accordance with the legislation of countries where they provide their services.
"....but added that it complies with the local laws of each particular country." [0]
[0]: https://www.techspot.com/news/67701-russia-tells-apple-googl...
Re: The App Store was always authoritarian
#37Agreed, Alex... but the Chrome team is not different . Nor is Edge. All three companies are willing to use all of their products for authoritarian control. The web platform feels no less captured than the app market.
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> It's something we create organically inside communities of shared democratic commitments (e.g., Blink)
Blink is bot a "shared democratic community". As evidenced by the amount of Chrome-only APIs pushed into it.
And you were very okay and completely silent about it while you worked there, and likely pushed quite a few of your own.
Well, you're still fine with it as you call it "a community of democratic commitments".
Re: The App Store was always authoritarian
#38Completely correct. The only way to ensure this doesn't happen is to criminalise device manufacturers being in charge of what software runs on their devices.
It's not "their devices". I recently bought a house and the previous owner kept trying to influence what I did with it, and everyone -- even those in government who ultimately had to help enforce my ownership rights -- agreed with me that that was ridiculous and intolerable. When Apple, Samsung, or whoever else sells something it isn't their's anymore! They have no right to continued involvement in it! That's how sel…
Do they have any continued responsibility for it to not explode or break in other ways?
Re: The App Store was always authoritarian
#39I just want to remind people that the alternative to authority is anarchy. No, not the utopian kind, Star Trek style. Think: Mad Max. I’m trying to communicate with relatives of my partner while on holiday. We have iPhones, they all have Androids. We asked them to install “ChatGPT” because its voice mode is shockingly good at near-real-time translation. When I type “ChatGPT” into the Apple App Store, the top hit is……
You'll change your mind when Apple will remove the app that you actually need. For now, you remind me of a certain poem:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist [0]
Re: The App Store was always authoritarian
#40Maybe it's not a great idea to allow a company to decide what software users can run, and I am inclined to believe that Murphy's Law will apply. Ultimately, software is freedom of speech.
I never thought about this topic to have an opinion on this, but this is the best take for sure!