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by devnullbrain 852 days ago
It's so funny that every HN post on this topic produces more and more contrived reasons for why having less choice is better, actually. Today: my parents need to be coddled like children, so you don't get to install a new browser.

It's only because Apple's legal wrangling failed that Android even exists today.

2 comments

This site stopped being for actual hackers at least 5 years ago, maybe more. These people are the opposite of hackers, literally begging for and defending walled gardens and closed systems. What a joke this community has become over the years.
Or could it be that the parents of most people who were live on this website 15, or even 10 years ago were not using computers, and the parents of the younger generation on this website are using computers?

So maybe people want their parents to avoid getting scammed or having their money stolen from their accounts.

Clearly if you aren’t personally capable of auditing an entire OS you deserve the security holes you get.

Which sorta makes me wonder why these “actual hackers” even bother to care about iOS.

You do get to install a new browser, on a platform you’d prefer, one that is open and supports choice, go over there.
No. Follow the law.
Thankfully it is only a bad law in the European Union.
And it's a good law elsewhere? :)

You're also welcome not to buy a phone for your parents. It would be disingenuous for me to suggest you actually do so, because we all make choices under duress or with limited options.

If this bad law were to cross the Atlantic I would still buy my parents their phones and deal with the situation.

I’m glad I don’t have to while it remains outside the US. And I’m glad I don’t have to deal with it on my own phone, even if I’m better equipped to deal with it. And I’m glad people are still free to change to different browser engines inside the US without the law.

I'm really sorry that your emotional wellbeing is predicated on the exploitative practice of a multinational company. You should have seen this coming. Bell Telephone didn't get away from litigation for "securing" telecommunications infrastructure under one body. Microsoft didn't foil antitrust litigation for "protecting" users from third-party browsers.

Expecting Apple to escape broader antitrust scrutiny is a pipe dream. You should probably plan accordingly.