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Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

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Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#81

Post by kilburn »

mch82 wrote: post #53
robertAngst wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can anyone on HN explain why software freedom could ever be a bad thing? IE: I only see it as Apple having extreme upfront costs, keeping poor people away from developing.

I have two questions about licenses that require distribution of source code (like GPL & AGPL). 1. Do they limit the freedom of the developer to keep source code private? 2. Do they make it harder to sustain a living wage through the labor of writing software? I’m fully supportive of “attribution” licenses like MIT, BSD, Apache 2. But, I don’t think Stallman considers those “free software”.

> 1. Do they limit the freedom of the developer to keep source code private?

There's a clash between user's and developer's freedoms: if a developer is free to keep the source code private, then said software's users are not free to study, change it, and distribute those changes.

The free software movement prioritizes user's freedoms (the 4 essential freedoms [1]) over developer's freedoms. You seem to do the opposite.

> 2. Do they make it harder to sustain a living wage through the labor of writing software?

Your wording makes it hard to answer the question. If you get paid purely to write software, it doesn't matter if said software is free software or not. If you sell software copies/licenses to pay for your development, then it is objectively harder to earn as much.

[1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#82

Post by coldtea »

I could not care less with Apple abiding by national laws of each country (to provide or not provide some app). Wanna do business somewhere, play by their laws, not impose your clout (which for some companies is bigger than some states, hence the "Banana Republic" notion) to have the laws of your preference enforced. (Most Americans are OK with it, because it's usually their companies doing the enforcing. But consider the opposite, you being forced to accept the terms of some other country).

But I dislike their enforced prudery. Unless something is considered illegal (e.g. CP), it should be up to the users to decide. At worse, implement age restrictions when shopping.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#83

Post by ken »

kilburn wrote: post #59
hellofunk wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

RMS is an extremist, openly and unashamedly. He doesn't try to hide it, he tries to argue that his extremist position is the morally correct and long-term best for society though. > 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. He bashes all big techs for most of those points too. See the links at the top where he com…

So by this standard, is there a computer that I should use, or is all computing in 2019 unethical?

I see he's using a >10yr old Intel CPU, presumably to avoid the Management Engine, so presumably he thinks it's OK to pay money to these companies in certain circumstances?

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#84

Post by saagarjha »

throwawaymath wrote: post #67
tokyodude wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The general argument is that iOS is more secure because Apple strictly controls both the hardware and the software. The two are very tightly integrated in Apple products, which means proprietary software for e.g. segregating userland or interacting with the secure enclave is specialized and well-audited. The other (perhaps more compelling) argument is that Apple is only able to invest this level of security in its pr…

The Secure Enclave is not well-audited in the traditional sense, as it’s just as proprietary as the rest of the device.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#86

Post by 0815test »

snazz wrote: post #63
mark_l_watson wrote: post #45

+1 Richard Sure, he is cherry picking examples, but there are a lot of examples to choose from. I used mostly Linux at home for about 15 years, then switched to a decade of MacOS. My new laptop is a Linux laptop and I think I will go back to Linux as my main driver. I am really conflicted about cellphones. I was unhappy with the crap ware preloaded on my Verizon Android phones. I am happier with a Verizon iPhone, as…

If your Android phone is compatible[0], you might enjoy the result from installing LineageOS on it. If you wish, you can continue to use the Google Play Services package (which is where Google does all the tracking, and is also the only way to get the Play Store). I chose not to and use F-Droid and directly downloaded APKs, which saves me from running any proprietary code that I haven’t vetted carefully. It also solv…

LineageOS is pretty nice, but it's a bandaid and they dropped a huge amount of older devices from support when they left the CM brand. Hopefully postmarketOS will become more usable in the future, and we'll be able to use that on existing hardware, perhaps in combination with something like Halium when needed to make the proprietary driver blobs usable with a custom, non-AOSP userspace.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#87

Post by ksec »

how-rude wrote: post #79
ksec wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what are we suppose to do other than flagging for utter nonsense like this one? I can give you a pass what whatever ideological view in Stallman's own little world. But things like > Apple pioneered techniques for avoiding the US corporate tax (even though it is far too low) in order to pay next to no tax. Apple is the largest Tax payer in the US by far. Given how other company dodge tax I sometimes wish ( as an A…

Yeah, and for people like you who invested in oil companies global warming is an "utter nonsense".

And your argument makes absolutely zero sense. Coming from an Account created 20 min ago.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#88

Post by mark_l_watson »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #78
mark_l_watson wrote: post #45

+1 Richard Sure, he is cherry picking examples, but there are a lot of examples to choose from. I used mostly Linux at home for about 15 years, then switched to a decade of MacOS. My new laptop is a Linux laptop and I think I will go back to Linux as my main driver. I am really conflicted about cellphones. I was unhappy with the crap ware preloaded on my Verizon Android phones. I am happier with a Verizon iPhone, as…

> I am reading Cal Newport’s new book Digital Minimalism that is making me realize that I need to be more focused in how I spend any screen time. To this end I am launching an email service that sends and receives messages once a day. The idea is that with one delivery each day, you don’t need to regulate or discipline yourself as much, and you get a lot more space to think and enjoy your communication. It’s called P…

Cool idea. I like to ‘go dark’ and not receive emails or phone/text while I am working but I don’t know if I could do once a day email. Nice idea though.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#89

Post by saagarjha »

dana321 wrote: post #69

Recent examples of why not to use apple: 1. Their new keyboards are terrible, and are buggy. 2. Lack of headphone jack on phones. 3. Vast price increases for relatively little new features. 4. Constant upgrading of the OS which breaks half of the software you use.

These aren’t really the kind of complaints that Stallman has, though.

Re: Reasons Not to Use Apple (2018)

#90

Post by jimktrains2 »

mch82 wrote: post #53
robertAngst wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can anyone on HN explain why software freedom could ever be a bad thing? IE: I only see it as Apple having extreme upfront costs, keeping poor people away from developing.

I have two questions about licenses that require distribution of source code (like GPL & AGPL). 1. Do they limit the freedom of the developer to keep source code private? 2. Do they make it harder to sustain a living wage through the labor of writing software? I’m fully supportive of “attribution” licenses like MIT, BSD, Apache 2. But, I don’t think Stallman considers those “free software”.

> 1. Do they limit the freedom of the developer to keep source code private?

The (A)GPL aim is to retain the freedom of the user to view, modify, compile, and redistribute their changes. They explicitly limit the freedom of the developer to close their source would that the user has those freedoms.

To use an extreme example that I'm not using as an example for moral equivalence, but as a procedural one: laws against any (e.g. theft, murder, trespassing, &c) limit the abilities of one party for the benefit of another.

Licenses like the MIT and bsd license take the opposite approach: they give the developer the freedom to use the code as they want, including closing it from inspection and modification by the end user.

Both allow someone to be constrained in some way. It's just a matter of who.

> 2. Do they make it harder to sustain a living wage through the labor of writing software?

I mean, RedHat seems to be doing OK? The recent kerfuffle about mongo and elastic search seem to be because they chose more permissive license at the start, and not a copyleft.

So, who knows? Business is hard and no one factor makes or breaks your chances?

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