Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We got Linux on the iPhone, iPad and other idevices

konradybcio.pl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 181 posts

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

#2

Post by woolion »

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 company some "Apple guy" that owns an iPhone, iPad, etc to test Safari quirks. It really feels like an under-handed racket.

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

#3

Post by usrn »

woolion wrote: 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…

What? These devices would be running Firefox not Safari.

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

#4

Post by tmikaeld »

woolion wrote: 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…

There will be millions of no-longer-supported Apple units out there, it makes sense to give them a second life with Linux rather than throwing them in a landfill.

And linux on it would not run Apple apps, it would run Firefox or Chromium.

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

#5

Post by rtpg »

tmikaeld wrote: post #4
woolion wrote: 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…

There will be millions of no-longer-supported Apple units out there, it makes sense to give them a second life with Linux rather than throwing them in a landfill. And linux on it would not run Apple apps, it would run Firefox or Chromium.

So loads of people have testified that using old Androids as long term computing devices just doesn't work cuz the machines can't deal with being on all the time.

I wonder if iPhones and the like are any different on this front. Would you be able to build up a little serve farm of these things?

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

#6

Post by woojoo666 »

tmikaeld wrote: post #4
woolion wrote: 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…

There will be millions of no-longer-supported Apple units out there, it makes sense to give them a second life with Linux rather than throwing them in a landfill. And linux on it would not run Apple apps, it would run Firefox or Chromium.

I think they are just saying if you buy an Apple device to install Linux on it, you are still supporting Apple (including their walled garden approach). Not to mention Apple is constantly fighting against these sorts of hacks so you'll always be playing mouse in their cat-and-mouse game

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

#8

Post by pabs3 »

vocram wrote: post #7

How could we benefit from having Linux on old iDevices? Would I be able to repurpose a device to do something useful I can’t do with iOS?

Its good for devices that stopped receiving iOS security updates, or for doing weird things that you can't do with iOS, like using your iPhone as a USB keyboard for your desktop using Linux's USB gadget support.

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

#10

Post by tmikaeld »

woojoo666 wrote: post #6
tmikaeld wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will be millions of no-longer-supported Apple units out there, it makes sense to give them a second life with Linux rather than throwing them in a landfill. And linux on it would not run Apple apps, it would run Firefox or Chromium.

I think they are just saying if you buy an Apple device to install Linux on it, you are still supporting Apple (including their walled garden approach). Not to mention Apple is constantly fighting against these sorts of hacks so you'll always be playing mouse in their cat-and-mouse game

I'm all for open hardware, but objectively, it's either landfill or Linux, I'd rather see it come to use than become useless.
Post reply on HN