Apple is getting worse day after day. I'm still hoping that one day the EU Commission will finally go after them and force them to open up their stuff.
What we desperately need is for the tech giants and their mono/duopolies to be broken up, or for regulators to force them to make changes to their business in ways that allow for actual competition.
When that happens, the world might have more choices than just Google and Apple for smartphones, or Microsoft and Apple for desktop/laptops.
Let's face it, that is not going to happen. I can barely get bluetooth audio to work on my desktop, a truly functional purely linux ecosystem for phones that my mom can use is at least a decade away (if possible at all).
It's clear that the more traditional "Linux" operating systems on the PinePhone/Librem are just not mature, but what about a PinePhone/Librem loaded with stock AOSP and F-Droid, no GApps.
Lots of stuff just won't be available but that's going to be true no matter what non-Apple/Google platform you went to. Outside of that though, it should generally provide a fairly user-friendly experience.
If the state of Linux on desktops is anything to go by, Linux on smartphones will never be a success story either. I frequently regret buying a ThinkPad with AMD CPU/GPU after listening to the propaganda about open source GPU drivers. My laptop was basically a paperweight for a month until I downgraded linux-firmware package. No one wants to deal with this shit.
Curious, which ThinkPad was this? I got a T14s with AMD last year and it is one of best laptops I've used till date, and works with Linux out of the box, incl graphics, networking, USB-C docks etc.
Interesting. I didn't know much about it other than having heard the name until I just looked it up. The idea of physical kill switches is pretty cool. My only question is, given that the OS isn't based on Android, does it basically not have any apps? The website mentions that it sort of turns HTML 5 apps in to some sort of native-like app by downloading it and sandboxing it. Is that the only sort of apps that are available for it? Or do you install full Linux applications on it? The website doesn't make it super clear.
My (limited) understanding is: the Librem phone has a very limited number of apps.
The vendor tackles existing GTK (?) apps and tries to make them work with touch. But it seems to do so on a best-effort basis so nothing is guaranteed.
I acknowledge that Purism is a small company and that it can only do so much. In case it fails, my gamble is that enough people are going to contribute and keep the most important apps working.
UK government had to plead and beg for a year untill it was allowed to release an app to let half the population using iPhone register their legal rights:
> Why? They're clearly an abusive company, just don't do business with them.
The market just does not have the ability to act here. Facebook literally incited genocide on the other side of the world and Facebook experienced zero repercussions
This is a website of mostly software developers and people working in tech.
If you fall into that demographic, how do you avoid doing business with Apple? They're entrenched in the duopoly on desktop, the duopoly on mobile, and the duopoly on browsers.
Refusing to do business with Apple will only make you feel good about yourself, but it will significantly hurt your career prospects if you're a working developer, and ruin any hope of success if you're an entrepreneur trying to start or run a tech company.
For all intents and purposes, they're a monopoly. If you're a fan of the Hasbro game, you might disagree on the exact definition, but Apple (and peers) is unquestionably in a position where they're immune to market forces.
Capitalism doesn't work right when you have companies like that.
If you fall into that demographic, how do you avoid doing business with Apple?
Fairly easily, I have an X1 running Linux as my dev machine (I'm backend/ML) and don't have a phone. No need to worry about my career, I'm doing OK thanks.
