It meant getting root access to the device, which means you can do anything you want. People would get apps for free, install ones that aren’t on the app store and customize their home screen in ways that Apple doesn’t allow (like placing apps where you want). It’s still IOS, just with the ability to screw around under the hood.

For Android, rooting is pretty much the same thing and it’s still common.

Ahh, that makes sense. How did you go about doing that? It’s not like you have a terminal to mess around in on an iPhone? Is the reason I haven’t heard of it in a while that it’s harder/impossible in newer iPhones?

Also: Why would apple prevent you from having root access? The way I see it, when I buy a phone, just like a pc, I should be allowed to do what I want with it.

The argument is that, for most people, letting them do what they want with something they don’t really understand is not a good idea. In this case it also creates a support headache for Apple. At first, they kind of tacitly accepted that jailbreaking was just going to happen and didn’t really actively fight it other than to close exploits used to root devices. As more and more people did it, for the reasons outlined above, more people wound up with bricked, or otherwise malfunctioning iPhones. When they went to Apple to fix it, at first there was an effort to help (you know, to retain customers), but they had voided their warranty. Because of that, Apple wasn’t really interested in spending lots of time troubleshooting something when they didn’t really know the full status of the OS (b/c there were multiple ways to jailbreak, and most of the fools taking their rooted phones to support didn’t understand enough to tell them what all was done beyond, “my kid’s friend said this would be cool”). Eventually Apple washed their hands of the whole thing and started refusing any support for rooted phones. That part, I have no problem with. They also started actively working to stop folks jailbreaking. That part, I thought, was too much. Just tell them they void the warranty by jailbreaking and refuse support. They dug their hole.

FWIW, I use an iPhone for personal use and android (Pixels) for work.

Adding that I’m not saying anyone is a fool for jailbreaking. I think people should have that right. I was saying the fools are the ones who still expected Apple to support the jailbroken OS. To me, if you don’t like Apple’s walled garden on iOS and iPadOS devices, don’t use them.

A laptop is different. People use them from considerably more diverse reasons. Because of that they need to be more flexible.

Also, while all that may seem like BS from a consumer perspective, it’s not as much from a business perspective. If you disagree, take a look at how Apple’s doing these days. Whatever reason you think they’re doing well, they ARE doing quite well.