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A comment on Apple’s Mistake. Parent comment

Re:Apple’s Mistake by echelon on Monday August 09, 2021 @02:57PM (#28120810)
> I've read a lot of stuff by RMS and am certainly aware of his concerns.

> RMS pontificating [...]

Uh, no. RMS was right all along and you're still not getting it.

You bought devices you can't upgrade, you can't run software on, that oppress indie devs, that tax 30% of the market, that sell out freedom fighters in oppressive regimes, and that now spy on you. And now you realize the problem.

The only way out of this madness is to get the sensible representatives in Congress to move forward with an antitrust case. Breaking up the power monopoly will perhaps get us back to a place where we have rights. The way it is now, Apple is a central point of failure.

Again, everything RMS spoke was truth, and it's here again rearing its ugly head.

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Re:Apple’s Mistake by kelnos on Monday August 09, 2021 @03:32PM (#28121299)
It's weird that people seem to trust Congress with this. This is the same Congress that is considering banning end-to-end encryption, remember?
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by pessimizer on Monday August 09, 2021 @04:55PM (#28122233)
Congress is trash, but they're the institution that runs your life, and you at least get a nominal say about who is in it. If you're arguing for revolution, I won't disagree, but what it really sounds like is the traditional "we can't do this one thing until we do everything else first."
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by echelon on Monday August 09, 2021 @03:59PM (#28121644)
Congress isn't wholly incompetent, despite the fun we have poking at it. The US has a functioning democracy and leads the world in so many good and important metrics.

Our government isn't one person or one party, and that's a strength.

One of my local reps is leading the big tech breakup movement, and I'm incredibly proud to have her representing me.

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Re:Apple’s Mistake by Clubber on Monday August 09, 2021 @04:35PM (#28122032)
>leads the world in so many good and important metrics.

Can you help me with a few? Maybe 5? I'm pretty low on the US government at the moment. I can name quite a few things we lead in that are horrible.

>One of my local reps is leading the big tech breakup movement, and I'm incredibly proud to have her representing me.

I think that's great but I doubt that will ever be allowed to happen. Too much money will be thrown at congress and they will either do nothing, or do nothing in a way that makes them look like they did.

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Re:Apple’s Mistake by echelon on Monday August 09, 2021 @05:18PM (#28122415)
Innovation, science, technology, art (music, film, game, etc.), athletics (Olympics, etc.), space exploration, economy (by multiple metrics), energy production, military power, property value, ...

I might agree with parts of your list, but I think that people are way too down on the US and its accomplishments. I wouldn't want to live elsewhere.

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Re:Apple’s Mistake by robbedpeter on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @04:35PM (#28134075)
That's the crux of it. There are a few edge cases, but quality of life across the whole spectrum of wealth is worlds ahead almost everywhere else. Things aren't perfect, but they are pretty damn good compared to almost anywhere else. People get too hung up on first world problems to appreciate what they've got.
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by brokenmachine on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @12:37AM (#28125180)
>The US has a functioning democracy and leads the world in so many good and important metrics.

25th most democratic country ("flawed democracy") [1]

Which metrics? Defense spending? Healthcare cost?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index#By_country

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Re:Apple’s Mistake by zaphar on Monday August 09, 2021 @04:27PM (#28121946)
The funny thing is that you are failing to recognize the value of devices that can render web pages, give navigation instructions that won't get me lost, run games, have long battery life, great screen quality, and a bunch of other things.

I have yet to see a phone with the build quality and value add that I need a mobile phone to have from Free Software endeavors. These are the table stakes for the majority of people. Not the list you just rattled off. You aren't even in the running to compete on the other value adds if you can't do the above.

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Re:Apple’s Mistake by lupire on Monday August 09, 2021 @03:19PM (#28121128)
The real-world alternative to Apple is Microsoft, Google, and Blackberry, not GNU. Because almost no one and no money cares about GNU.
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by weikju on Monday August 09, 2021 @07:46PM (#28123702)
You're right. Free Software isn't there yet. So I just took some of my money and donated to a few projects.. Drop in the ocean, but a drop nonetheless.
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by alwillis on Monday August 09, 2021 @08:00PM (#28123787)
If anyone is going the purist route, it means no Dropbox, Facebook, OneDrive, etc. since they’ve been scanning for CSAM content way before Apple.
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by brokenmachine on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @12:43AM (#28125203)
But not on your own device.
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by mro_name on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @03:14AM (#28125946)
so what?
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by echelon on Monday August 09, 2021 @03:56PM (#28121613)
The real world alternative is healthy competition.
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by JAlexoid on Monday August 09, 2021 @04:31PM (#28121988)
Which is definitely absent in mobile phone space.
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Re:Apple’s Mistake by notJim on Monday August 09, 2021 @04:33PM (#28122016)
> The only way out of this madness is to get the sensible representatives in Congress to move forward with an antitrust case

What are you looking for out of this anti-trust case? Apple is not a monopoly. There are numerous privacy-focused phones and Android distros available. I think there just isn't a huge market for a privacy-focused phone (no, 1000 people on a HN and twitter is not a huge market.)

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