[whatsupdog]

It's worst in case of freedom, which is the most important aspect for me. Every release they are slowly turning in the screws and make it harder and harder to install apps from developers who haven't jumped through all the hoops that Apple forces them to. I hope this change in leadership will change this strategy.

[hedora]

Google is worse. Most of their apps are cloud only with no E2EE. Also, they are much more user hostile when deciding what goes in the store (they make money off spying, but apple makes money off hw, so this makes sense).

Both those ecosystems are rapidly enshittifying (apple cannot even reliably process keystrokes with subsecond latency, and google is banning sideloading).

We need a third, actually user-serving and open alternative. Maybe the new CEO will slow or reverse the bleeding on the iOS / MacOS side.

[whatsupdog]

Google has so far allowed installing apps without their explicit permission. So it's much higher on freedom index, imo. And there's no obligation to use Google cloud apps. There's alternative for every Google cloud app.

[modeless]

Also, Pixels have unlocked bootloaders and Android is open source to the point where third parties can and do make alternative OS distributions.

[cwillu]

And it's necessary to have a second phone to actually use any of that while maintaining access to one's banking app.

The hardware is nominally open only because they enforce participation in their software ecosystem via other means.

[DANmode]

> And it's necessary to have a second phone to actually use any of that while maintaining access to one's banking app.

Partially accurate / misleading at most.

[cwillu]

I have a phone that can be unlocked, and I will lose access to my banking app (among other things I require) if I do so.

If your “partially accurate” objection is that I didn't describe a perfectly universal experience, I will be greatly disappointed.

[whatsupdog]

That's like saying there's no freedom in USA because I didn't get a visa to visit. We are talking about the freedom of Google devices. And you are talking about banks not letting you install their apps on a non Google OS. Totally different things.