Apple's iOS takes a bite out of your freedom — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software

With the vice-like grip they have on Macs now thanks to Apple Silicon, new Mac computers now forbid you from installing free software applications or operating systems, due to improper use of code signing.

So you're saying the alternative, allowing free software to be installed without any sort of system check, is what we should be fighting for?

I get that some people don't want a corporation dictating what they can or can't do with a product they purchased but I think there's a whole lot more people who are buying into an ecosystem where we put our trust into the same corporation to protect us from malware running on our devices that contain essentially all our personal information.

Personally, I'd prefer to argue for much, much more restriction on my devices, not less.

All Apple products accept and welcome DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) that takes control of your music, movies and games away from you. Even though it's possible to download DRM-free music on an Apple device, its streaming music and movies have DRM.

That's not really an Apple argument as much as a media creator argument. Apple is one of dozens of media creators that have been using "DRM" / Copyright protection since the 1980s to prevent source duplication. The fact is that you have the right to copy media that you have purchased for archival purposes. What's illegal is breaking the lock preventing you from consuming that media on other platforms. The intention here is to prevent you from sharing a legally acquired copy with others. This is why we now purchase a license to consume media, not the media itself. You may not like this restriction but this is not an Apple issue.

As part of its micromanaging of the apps available for iOS, Apple censors all free software. Additionally, Apple Music, which comes with their desktop and mobile devices, refuses to play media in free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora.

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Apple keeps users' personal data in a sketchy corporate database Apple operates a network of services for managing contacts, calendars and correspondence across all its devices. This amounts to a huge vacuum sucking up users' personal information and storing it in a centralized server farms that are vulnerable to attacks. And since the software running on people's Apple devices is proprietary, no one except Apple can audit it and know exactly what it is sending to the mothership. If you're using an iPhone, the situation is particularly bad: the devices exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge.

This can not be over-shared enough. Apple has even published a paper showing how your information is auctioned off by app developers. You think TikTok is bad? Look up Conde Nast. Again, I wish Apple were more restrictive. The best thing you can do is review what the app does with your information in the App Store before you download it and disable ad-tracking, etc on the device.

I don't see how you can argue for more freedom to "own" your device while using the argument about protecting your information. The argument should be for more transparency.

The brighter idea would be to promote an open source organization that uses something like blockchain to hold your data while sandboxing it out to apps and operating systems.

I like the energy but really didn’t give good reason. Like what is the alternative? Android? When that has the (almost) same set of “reasons to boycott”. I know android is more open and free to customize, but your still stuck at the hip with Google Play services… unless you do something like Graphene OS. But then that focuses you to buy a Google Pixel. Overall it’s a sad world for mobile tech. And ultimately you got to bow down and take it from some tech overlords and honestly Apple is one of the that (as far as anyone can see) gone out of there way to end to end encrypt user data and not sale it to the highest bidder. Which is why some of the products like Siri is just garbage compared to the competition.

There are probably just as many good reasons to boycott Google’s Android — most phone resellers can’t resist adding their own launcher, spyware, bloatware.

What alternatives are there for daily phone use?

• Sailfish is a gorgeous and mostly complete phone operating system — if you live in Europe and are willing to add an alternate operating system to your Sony phone. But it lacks many apps, if that’s important to you.
• Someone else already explained the pros and cons of GrapheneOS.
• “Dumb” feature phones lack security, privacy, and apps.
• Linux phones don’t appear to be complete; the open hardware is limited and clunky, while the hardware that can be re-used from Android depends on binary blobs

For an off the shelf phone, I personally would rather buy Apple than any Android phone because of links to Google. Looking forward to a truly open-source, free as in freedom phone that has hardware comparable with leading commercial platforms.

For a desktop or laptop, I personally would choose Linux over macOS, even though most hardware depends on closed-source drivers from the manufacturers. (If you look carefully, there are truly open and free as in freedom hardware platforms, though the range is limited).