That’s one way of looking at it, but I think the reason the issue keeps coming up on HN is that it feels like a serious regression that we’ve ended up in a world where one of the most ubiquitous platforms is a walled garden. Even in the days of Windows dominance, that wasn’t a problem.

The transition happened so gradually that we ended up here without a lot of discussion, which is why the discussion is happening now.

Is it a regression, though? In the days of Windows, malware was rampant. There was no sense of sandboxing so installs could get deeply embedded and hard to purge. There was certainly the uncertainty of the validity of software when downloaded.

This is not to suggest we should remove this capability from macOS/Windows but I wouldn’t call it a regression.

That’s a good point, but I feel like modern Mac desktop computing hits the right balance: users can opt to install only from the App store with a high degree of confidence, but power-users can use Homebrew without restriction.

But customers who like to have more freedom can still buy Android phones instead. Nobody is forcing them to buy Apple devices. I think it's a positive thing that we have diverse options for different needs.

2 is not diverse

No, Apple has been pestered to make the iPhone an open platform from day one. They’ve consistently said no.

I bet you’re right about the motivation for this silly outrage: People claim the iPhone is a PC because they wish it to be, because the cognitive dissonance was so great when “Open didn’t always win”

Sure, from and individual perspective. What if I want to build software for people who use the iPhone and I want to add some web3 functionality and Apple says no? Apple basically does stifle innovation on their device by acting as a regulatory agency for their users. Even MSFT didn't do that. Basically every iPhone user is on a closed system that one company controls from end-to-end. That's a type of market power that we haven't seen since maybe the railroads were controlled by 3 people.

That’s a pretty strange thing to say when basically more computing is done on mobile phones now than on computers. Using it as a general computer should be a freedom without question.

> The iPhone is not a computer platform, it's an integrated experience.

Sorry, but this is bulls*t.

The iPhone has, what? A few million applications from third parties? It's a platform.

Use the iPhone with 0 (ZERO!) third party applications for 1 year and then get back to me ;-)

Actually, even if you somehow manage to do it, that's not even the point. The AppStore makes something like $60bn per year. iOS is a platform.