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A comment on Google's Plan to Stop Apple from Getting Serious About Search. Parent comment

Re:Google's Plan to Stop Apple from Getting Serious About Se... by compiler-guy on Thursday October 26, 2023 @08:17PM (#38033283)
> What I'd like is to be able to put a different OS on my phone.... if the iPhone were not locked down we would have a proliferating open source OS community around it and everyone would benefit directly and indirectly.

There are plenty of Android phones available for that. The OS choices are technically interesting, but not suitable for anyone but the most dedicated techie. I probably wouldn't call the situation "proliferating" either. At least not on a level where everyday people would see the benefit.

But in any event, developing a well-functioning phone OS take billions of dollars, especially when it comes to regulatory things like radio use. And even more especially when it comes to phone companies certifying the phone for use.

Opening the iPhone wouldn't make any difference there, with things on the Android side as strong evidence of that.

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Re:Google's Plan to Stop Apple from Getting Serious About Se... by kobalsky on Friday October 27, 2023 @12:07AM (#38034573)
> Opening the iPhone wouldn't make any difference there, with things on the Android side as strong evidence of that.

I'd say that projects like Ahahi Linux are evidence of the contrary.

The hardware standardization that an open iPhone would bring to the table would be fertile ground for OSS.

Android is a clusterfuck of abandoned and shitty drivers and hardware that no one cares to reverse engineer due to fragmentation and fast obsolescence. It's the Internet Explorer 6 of mobile hardware and software, it's misery.

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