If people in the EU want to run software on their iPhones from any random repository willy-nilly then by means knock yourselves out.
Admittedly, Apple has maneuvered themselves into a very convenient and profitable position, which is, "We'll keep you safe as long as you stay within our walled garden."
That might sound unreasonable to a lot of folks, but the truth is that this approach has a proven track record of actually keeping Apple devices secure. Take a jail-broken iPhone for instance... people are just downloading shit from anywhere just to play around. Keep in mind, downloading software from a random repository this way isn't the same as navigating to a specific website on a computer and downloading software directly from the developer. Software developers might provide package repositories for their own software, but when we talk about "App Stores" we're not really talking about that sort of repository, right? We're talking about a full on application store that provides software from a multitude of vendors. Like I said though, knock yourselves out. It'll be your mess to clean up when your devices are inevitably compromised, not mine.
> Like I said though, knock yourselves out. It'll be your mess to clean up when your devices are inevitably compromised, not mine.
Most people seem fully capable of not collapsing into helplessness when dealing with an "open" market on the PC, without being forced to use a singular app store.
I am surprised that the pro "security" people are unable to think of this obvious fact almost immediately, given that installing whatever we want is the baseline standard for PCs, and has been for decades
Apple isn't keeping anyone safe from malware. They have a contractor look (visually) at the phone screen and see if the app is breaking any rules, and watch for weird stuff via an http proxy. This takes something like 15-30 minutes from what I hear.
There's no instrumentation, there's no depth to it. It's trivially easy to ship malware and other things that violate the rules. People do it all the time, sometimes they go long long periods without getting caught because they don't draw attention, sometimes they're so big they can just get away with it.
The App Store is entirely a fraud as far as safety from malware goes. It just makes sure things look nice which makes you feel safe when you really aren't.
My question is why are they only targeting very specific platforms. If they wanted to see true change they would target all platforms equally.
I challenge the EU to force all "gatekeepers" like the auto, health, banking and most of all start with government to also open their hardware and software stacks. Drink your own kool-aid.
> My question is why are they only targeting very specific platforms.
My ignorant take on the matter is that they take on specific platforms that have created global-scale monopolies that are extremely hard to break if left to the "free market".
About damn time. I am tired of running old iMac just to have XCode so I can sign my iOS binaries and load them on my iPhone.
And before somebody asks "Why don't you use Android?" - I have customers who bought an iPhone, so I want to give them service as well, even that I dislike whole iOS and its ecosystem and don't want to use it. Basically same reason why 10 years ago you were doing special CSS for Internet Explorer, despite using Firefox.
Normally I'd side with you but Apple has really fucked things up here and someone needs to step in.
The root of the problem is the restricted choice caused by cell networks. If it weren't for the regulatory capture by cell equipment manufacturers the market would have probably dealt with this but that's a really complicated discussion and no one is having it so it's not changing.
This doesn’t sit well with me at all. Apple should have every right to create a closed system if they want. Why not? And in fact, an Apple that’s forced to do otherwise isn’t Apple anymore. The walled garden is one of their unique value propositions.
There are options for the incredibly small percentage of folks who want completely open systems. So what exactly is the problem they’re trying to address?
Like the never ending bombardment of cookie pop-ups plastered over top of everything, the EU seems intent to continually etch their mark on everyone’s lives. All I see is lazy, half baked ideas and petty bureaucracy.
Presumably for the same reason that the telephone network, or railroad lines are subject to certain laws, and cannot do whatever they want.
Or any other situation where a company has a large amount of anti competitive market power.
> There are options
If Apple doesn't like democracy, it has other options. They can feel free to leave the EU market and they won't be subject to any of that pesky democracy and popular laws.
> incredibly small percentage
It seems as if there is actually a very large percentage that supports these laws in the EU.
> This doesn’t sit well with me at all. Apple should have every right to create a closed system if they want.
I disagree. In general a company should have the right to create a closed system sure. But if said company is this huge and essentially shapes a large part of digital society then the representatives of the people (it's governments) should take action to shape it in the interest of their populations. Now if that's what's happening I cannot say. Perhaps it is more like you describe it:
> All I see is lazy, half baked ideas and petty bureaucracy.
Admittedly, Apple has maneuvered themselves into a very convenient and profitable position, which is, "We'll keep you safe as long as you stay within our walled garden."
That might sound unreasonable to a lot of folks, but the truth is that this approach has a proven track record of actually keeping Apple devices secure. Take a jail-broken iPhone for instance... people are just downloading shit from anywhere just to play around. Keep in mind, downloading software from a random repository this way isn't the same as navigating to a specific website on a computer and downloading software directly from the developer. Software developers might provide package repositories for their own software, but when we talk about "App Stores" we're not really talking about that sort of repository, right? We're talking about a full on application store that provides software from a multitude of vendors. Like I said though, knock yourselves out. It'll be your mess to clean up when your devices are inevitably compromised, not mine.