Millions of people installed Fortnite mobile without an appstore, you should ask them.
This kind of industry-wide myopia indicates that there's an opportunity for disruption, and I'm glad EA recognized it.
> If I'm a lawyer/politician/activist, I want a locked down device so someone can't install a backdoor if I lose sight of it for a few minutes.
But you get a device that records your life intimately and is one subpoena to Google or Apple away from making your life very, very difficult.
>Millions of people installed Fortnite mobile without an appstore, you should ask them.
That's a mischaracterization of my argument. I never claimed they couldn't sideload an app or that it was difficult. After all, all they had to do was follow the on-screen instructions. Furthermore, sideloading wasn't helping them. The user went through more steps to install a game just so epic could skip the 30% play store tax. Maybe epic passed the savings on the consumer instead of lining their profits (ha!), but the only entity that sideloading clearly helped was epic.
>But you get a device that records your life intimately and is one subpoena to Google or Apple away from making your life very, very difficult.
* you can opt out of the tracking/uploading to google/apple
* even if you opted into tracking/uploading, there's things that aren't but local malware can get (eg. emails, phone recordings)
* requiring a subpoena requires judicial approval and leaves a paper trail. it's also not an option for some groups (eg. foreign governments). there's a reason why mercenary hacking firms (hacking team, NSO group, DarkMatter) are a thing.
Open devices which you have full control over can be made more secure. With a locked down device, you rely on the manufacturers' implementations, which may not get audited or regularly patched.
Apple supports devices for 5+ years, you’re throwing up strawmen.
That's actually how all mobile operating systems work right now. You don't get root (admin). The only way to get it is to jailbreak/root, which essentially involves running a privilege escalation exploit or patching the operating system. In any case it's definitely not as simple as "sudo" or "run as administrator". However, even without root, most users manage just fine. They can browse the web, edit documents, play games, and install whatever apps they want. There's no reason why this model can't be extended to desktop operating systems. You can't do it on mac/windows yet because of legacy reasons (eg. needing to install legacy drivers or apps).
Maybe HN readers, but not most of the population. How does allowing sideloaded apps or unlocked bootloaders help the average soccer mom? If I'm a lawyer/politician/activist, I want a locked down device so someone can't install a backdoor if I lose sight of it for a few minutes.