[lotsofpulp]

> It's a harmful business.

All I know is iOS/iPadOS have made it possible for my parents and all the non native English literate, mostly uneducated elders in my family able to use modern computing devices without me ever having to worry about malware.

And there is no alternative.

[cubefox]

Some Apple fans here seem to assume that Android, Windows, and MacOS must be full of malware, since they allow side-loading.

[lotsofpulp]

I have many years of experience dealing with malware on Windows machines, and Android from my dad’s usage of OnePlus phones.

MacOS can also have malware because uneducated non English literate people have no idea what they are clicking.

iPadOS and iOS’s saving grace is that it does not matter what someone clicks, everything is easily uninstallable and walled off.

[cubefox]

I think it uncontroversial that this experience is so rare that it doesn't justify forbidding sideloading on Android, Windows, and MacOS. Then it also doesn't justify it for iOS.

[lotsofpulp]

If it was so rare, then there would have been no need for the plethora of software made to get rid of malware like CCleaner and malwarebytes and ninite.com and so many others.

[smoldesu]

Not that any of those save you from malware, necessarily. Nor the App Store - NSO has proven that you don't even need to install anything to get your iOS devices compromised. At some point, we have to acknowledge that all cell phones rely on their user to not mess things up. Even on iOS you can respond to the Nigerian Prince on iMessage with an Apple Pay of $300 (to be repaid as $1,000,000 in the Kingsland, of course).

If people want to use only Apple-sanctioned apps, that should be an option. It should not be the impetus for keeping features off the iPhone though.

[cubefox]

Those seem to be tools from an old Windows XP SP1 era. I don't think anything like that is commonly used in Android or MacOS, or modern Windows.

[etchalon]

I don't assume it so much as I experience it.

[smoldesu]

The alternative is a developer mode switch with a big "Don't Touch This, Grandma!" modal when you press it. People who want to install their own software do not conflict with your parents or the non-native English literate uneducated elders in your family.

[MBCook]

And what’s the first thing every scam will now tell people to do?

Turn dev mode on so they can install the “malware remover” or “fix the Facebook app” or whatever to be able to execute the scam.

[jeppester]

Child protection modes have had this problem solved since forever.

It's only a hard problem to solve if you are looking for excuses not to solve it.