[magguzu]

Which is totally fine IMO, it was weird to me that they weren't going with this approach when they first announced it.

Macs blocked launching apps from unverified devs, but you can override in settings. I thought they could just do something along those lines.

[kelnos]

That's not fine at all. A developer who doesn't want to (or can't) distribute through the Play Store will now need to teach their users how to enable developer mode and toggle a hidden setting. This raises the barrier a bit more than the current method of installing outside the Play Store.

[hasperdi]

It's not fine. Some apps particularly banking apps have developer mode detection and refuse to work if developer mode is enabled.

[exe34]

I've switched banks for less.

[Aachen]

Until there are no banks left to switch to

Maybe this sounds dark but see also how the net is tightening around phones that allow you to run open firmware after you've bought the hardware for the full and fair price. We're slowly being relegated to crappy hobbyist projects once the last major vendors decide on this as well, and I don't even understand what crime it is I'm being locked out for

We're too small a group for commercial vendors to care. Switching away isn't enough, especially when there's no solidarity, not even among hackers. Anyone who uses Apple phones votes with their wallet for locking down the ability to run software of your choice on hardware of your choice. It's as anti-hacker as you can get but it's fairly popular among the HN audience for some reason

If not even we can agree on this internally, what's a bank going to care about the fifty people in the country that can't use a banking app because they're obstinately using dev tools? What are they gonna do, try to live bankless?

Of course, so long as we can switch away: by all means. But it's not a long-term solution

[exe34]

I think pretty soon I'll carry a "normal" phone in my bag for things like communication and banking/ticketing, but I'll carry a device I actually like in my pocket. It'll be the best of both worlds - content I want to see often and easily in my pocket, and the stuff I don't want to be distracted by will be harder to reach on a whim.

[Aachen]

Yes, I think I'll have to do the same. I've been in the market for a new phone but the one I had pretty much settled on removed the option to update the boot verification chain so I'm obviously not buying that. Might as well buy apple then

It seems like a finite solution though. Having a second phone is not something most people will do, so the apps that are relegated to run on such devices will become less popular, less maintained, less and less good

Currently, you can run open software alongside e.g. government verification software. I think it's important to keep that option if somehow possible