Re:Apple’s ad business set to boom on the back of its own an...
by int_19h on Monday October 03, 2022 @08:26PM
(#33075364)
Given that you can add whatever repos you want on Debian and/or install packages directly outside of any repo - and that people actually do just that for the non-free stuff - how is it any less free than Windows?
Re:Apple’s ad business set to boom on the back of its own an...
by smoldesu on Monday October 03, 2022 @08:20PM
(#33075334)
Software repositories can distribute whatever software they want, the examples you've given are of arbitrary decisions made by repo owners. Furthermore, Win32 isn't an 'ecosystem', it's just a set of APIs you can target to pantomime software behavior. It doesn't relate to software distribution whatsoever, just as the Darwin/XNU kernel doesn't handle packaging.
In fact, you've done a very good job of highlighting the problem with the iPhone. MacOS' software distribution works because it offers a distribution-agnostic API for native apps, same as Windows. iOS/iPadOS don't expose those interfaces to the user, which means the only way to 'install' an app is with Apple's good graces. Compared to Debian, where you can still install non-free packages regardless of how it exists in the repo, Apple's status quo is considerably more restrictive (and abusive).
This has been the case with every single instance of software repositories (aka app stores). Remember the whole ffmpeg and libav schism that was fueled in part by repo maintainers imposing their dogmatic will? Or more recently Debian and whether to include non-free code in its installers (aka local repository)? I can't quite grasp why this doesn't appear immediately obvious to anyone.
The only truly free ecosystem is something like Win32, where developers are free to write whatever they want, publishers are free to sell whatever they want where- and however they want, and the operating system is dependent on that free ecosystem for continued relevance.