Steve Troughton-SmithThere are folks who still, to this day, won't touch Microsoft products because of Microsoft's behavior in the 90s — nearly 30 years later. People have long memories. Apple today makes 90s Microsoft look like a saint
Robert J. Berger@stroughtonsmith Sorry but there is no comparison. Microsoft set back computing by decades. Apple is doing completely different things that may not be good, but they are business things. They are not destroying or setting back computing in general.
@rberger …you're joking, right? You don't think 16 years of the App Store has set back computing? There's almost no other kind of computing left!
@stroughtonsmith Only applies to iphones and iPad. Even on the Mac you can still use stuff that isn’t on the App Store and of course if you use any other OS the App Store has no impact.
Microsoft forced its monopoly on every PC manufactured and made their OS terrible just to protect it from being cloned, just to name a few of the things. We had decades of bad computing monoculture due to Microsoft.
@stroughtonsmith That being said, IMHO Apple should be prosecuted for monopoly actions with the App Store.
Charlie Stross@rberger @stroughtonsmith Yup, I'm down with this. But? Even if Apple allowed rival app stores and non-Apple approved apps on iPhones, I'd keep mine locked to their store. Damn thing is too important—online banking, identity management, 2FA token, password vault—to risk exposing it to sketchy stuff. I'd actually like an optional MORE restricted app store, with Apple explicitly backing the safety and integrity of a limited range of apps on it, for security-first customers.
TransitBiker@stroughtonsmith @rberger early days App Store was an absolute chaotic mess. There was that one app that you could pay thousands of dollars for literally nothing.
Jerry Orr@TransitBiker @stroughtonsmith @rberger ah yes, the “I Am Rich” app! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich
