[gtvwill]

Well if they were really for productivity they would have made all their software offerings over the last 20 years cross platform in order to allow users of other systems to feel such amazing productivity boosts. But they didnt, they walled it off and made mac's about as incompatible and hard to work with for any other device (android,windows,linux) as they possibly could.

Proof in case, I can plug an android phone into a windows or linux os device and have zero problems yeeting files around and doing stuff off the block with zero input from me for drivers or some fancy app to let me get to the data. I cant do this with an iphone. The most simple act of using a phone as a physical storage device to get something from point a to b....near impossible on apple hardware. Meanwhile its been stock standard functionality for about 15+ years on other devices.

[TexanFeller]

> The most simple act of using a phone as a physical storage device to get something from point a to b....near impossible on apple hardware. Meanwhile its been stock standard functionality for about 15+ years on other devices.

It's been a long time since I stopped trying to like Android devices, but quite a few years ago I remember Android phones no longer working as a mass storage device you could drag files onto. That was a widely discussed intentional decision by Google and was one of several things that made me decide that Android's talk about freedom, openness and all that was just marketing. You can plug an Android in and drop stuff on it like a thumb drive again now?

[trelane]

> You can plug an Android in and drop stuff on it like a thumb drive again now?

I don't think that ever changed, though the vendor can probably turn it off, since they have the source.

On Linux, it can (depends on what you told the phone to present) photos or storage or such. It appears in Nautilus like any other external drive. I usually use it it move the photos off my phone onto my computer.

[nomel]

As a person that always had, and still has, PCs, and also now has MacBooks, I'm suspecting that I use my devices in a significantly different way than you do.

> made all their software offerings over the last 20

What Apple software would people want outside of the Apple ecosystem? Do you have an example? Most of the "niceness" is system wide/cross device integration related, many of which don't have an equivalent in the other OSs to share. For example, try to wirelessly transfer a file, quickly, between any combination of linux and Windows without an active WiFi connection.

The only "substantial" software I can think of, from Apple, is iMovie. My only frequent use is Preview and Keynote. Everything else is either Microsoft (including Office), or third party.

> they walled it off and made mac's about as incompatible and hard to work with for any other device (android,windows,linux) as they possibly could.

Is this also about wired connections? Do you have an example? For me, NFS, VNC, and lots of third party stuff to take care of the rest, the same that I use for PC to PC/linux. I'm not aware of walls for macOS. There's no restrictions for software. I even have third party kernel extensions installed right now.

> plug an android phone into a windows or linux os device

That is obviously intentional, and probably annoying. Although, I can't say I've used wired transfer with a phone in over a decade, including on my Android phone. I have a far less $/Gb USB3 drive to go from computer to computer.

I might be breaking HN guidelines with this comment.

[paulmd]

> For example, try to wirelessly transfer a file, quickly, between any combination of linux and Windows without an active WiFi connection.

bah gawd that’s IrDA’s music!

[trelane]

> What Apple software would people want outside of the Apple ecosystem? Do you have an example?

How about starting with iMessage?

Keynote etc. for Linux would be rather nice.

At one point, I joined a local MUG (Mac Users Group), hoping we could find common cause and support each other in a Windows world. Sadly, that was naive of me.

[gtvwill]

I mean, what kind of OS company would want to build software for another companies competing os???

...

https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/microsoft-corporation/id...

:)

[nomel]

I asked some specific questions so I could have a meaningful conversation. It doesn't look like you're interested. Cheers!