Re:Apple Terminates Epic Games' Developer Account
by Okawari on Saturday August 29, 2020 @07:02PM
(#24320037)
I agree that it is finally good that not only the governments but us as consumers are looking at this issue. I would hope that this entire debacle will result in a shift in perspective for enough people and legislators that Apple will just give us the right to run sideloaded applications without more (or hopefully less) effort than on the Android platform. If i remember correclty, microsoft tried to emulate Apple by only allowing windows store downloaded applications on their ARM version of windows initially but yielded after backlash (and probably poor sales).
I wouldnt call it trying to dictate what Apple does.Also I would like to specify that I don't really wanna dictate what software Apple develop or what products they want to sell in their store(atleast beyond whatever code is necessary for sideloading). What I do take issue with, is Apple dictating which companies are allowed to do business with "me" as a consumer, should I be on their platform.
Walled Gardens has not been the norm of Hardware/operating system platforms in the pc/laptop market, and I don't think it should be that way on mobile either. All of the major OS vendors could have implemented similar walled gardens if they wanted to, they just couldn't get away with it. I hope this leads to Apple not getting away with it either.
I’m personally opposed to Apple locking down MacOS to run only signed binaries. If they go too far with that I’ll stop buying Macs, but to what extent do I get to dictate to Apple what software they develop, what products they choose to sell and how they decide to implement them?
On balance I think it’s a good thing the US and EU are looking at these issues. Clearly at the moment there is at a consensus and I think there is a legitimate role for oversight of how these companies operate and enforce the rules on their systems. I’m not convinced though at forced openness on every platform of any kind is tenable.