They will just figure ways to make new walls, or be as malicious in compliance as possible. Reminder: walled gardens are always anti-consumer, no exceptions.
The “walled garden” is both what the average Apple customer wants, and what technophiles despise. Most iPhone users want the full assurance that they can download any app without performing research, knowing it won’t crash their indispensable device or track their every move. Say what you want about the limits of customization, it’s probably true, but Apple’s tight leash on software is precisely why iPhone is so reliable and private.
What industry? Does this industry you mentioned happens only contains data hungry ad oligopolies like google, facebook and bytedance; but happens to exclude all the reasonable alternatives like Mozilla, duckduckgo, grapheneos, calyxos, desktop linux, mastodon, and lemmy?
Seriously, windows is about to release forced advertisements in the Start Menu. Windows 12 is going to be a shit show. People aren’t going to flock to Linux, they’re going to Apple. Think they have a lot of money now? Wait until they get more desktop market. They can afford to build another garden.
Say what you want about Apple, it’s probably true. But don’t pretend they don’t have gardens inside gardens.
The only way Apple will fall is if there is actual competition, and nothing is on the horizon.
My neighbour randomly asked me a few months ago if I was familiar with Linux and if I could could get him some boot USB or something. I got him one with several options. He didn't have any Linux experience before, and isn't exactly a nerd.
It's much easier nowadays for someone to get familiar and use Linux than it was before, and it's much cheaper than reworking your whole tech ecosystem to accomodate Apple's monopoly.
My elderly neighbor needed a computer to do accounting, I set her up with Mint on a T430 w/ LibreOffice and told her I'd giver her free support till the laptop died.
5 years on and the only time I've had to fulfill my side of the bargain was when her printer was out of paper and she couldn't find her eye glasses to read the error message.
her printer was out of paper and she couldn't find her eye glasses to read the error message.
Hahahah, omg that's awesome.
To me this user exemplifies where Linux shines: in limited-use-case scenarios (not to say it's inflexible, just that support increases quickly with increased use-case complexity).
The more general-use needed, the more technical skill is required.
This user has a small set of specific requirements, so it's pretty trivial to get them running on a Linux distro, and it's a great application of what Linux brings to the table. System management will be minimal.
That "cathedral vs bazaar" thing didn't age too well.
Say, an OS with hardware and software support as good as that of Linux, but with cleanliness as good as that of OpenBSD (or at least FreeBSD) would probably have a bigger desktop and enterprise user share by now.
my god what is wrong with Americans that you're such a bunch of fucking fanboys. If it's not apple, it's religion, or your political party... psychotic obsession after psychotic obsession, total disconnect from reality...
Or everyone is starting to figure out that the garden looks just as good outside the fence as it does inside the fence. Technology has been converging for many years now to the point where most devices especially smart phones have reached a bottleneck and no one can make things go any faster and there is really no big need for even more massive storage space for the average person. So phones have hit a ceiling and the place that Apple once had where they were one of the few manufacturers that made good phones is now overshadowed by lots of other companies that are comparable or near comparable. Does the average person really care if they have a high definition 20MP camera or a 22 MP camera. All they care about is being able to scroll through Tik Tok, FB or Instagram and no one really seems to care what device they use to do that any more.
Apple still has a pretty solid ecosystem that makes it hard to break out of. For example:
airdrop and sharing in general - experience sucks pretty much anywhere else
watch, phone, and laptop all working together - iMessage, notifications, etc
iCloud - the experience is essentially seamless if you use all Apple products
I don't think people will be leaving Apple anytime soon, and those who don't use it probably don't know what they're missing.
I'm personally on Linux and it works well for me, but I recognize that people tend to stay where they're at, and I think Apple is probably more attractive to people who decide to leave Windows than Linux is (unless they need games, and Linux still seems to have better compatibility).
From a technical point of view I agree .. I have a few friends who work in music and visual arts and they swear by Apple products and software
But to average users and people who just want to go online with social media, snap a picture, share it, forget it and do it over and over and over again ... they really don't care if it's an apple product or not. The family and friends I know that are not technically minded only understand one key technological specification when it comes to devices ..... PRICE and COST.
If they can't afford a $1,000 apple phone .... they'll buy a $500 android phone ... or just stick to their five year apple phone and won't upgrade until they can buy a used $500 apple phone.
That's not what I see. In my area, people buy Apple because it's trendy. If they can't afford the $1000 Apple phone, they'll lease it and make payments. If they're too young, they'll convince their parents that they need it.
The ones with Android phones generally have a reason for it beyond cost. Once that reason is gone (e.g. Apple supports whatever the use case is), they may be swayed to get an iPhone. But once someone has an Apple device, they generally stick to it.
The Apple experience isn't necessarily better, but it is sticky.
