[joe_mamba]

>How this possible in 2026?

Enshittification. When you're an ecosystem monopoly, people are forced to buy your shit no matter how bad it gets.

[miki123211]

Macs are nowhere near a monopoly.

I would (grudgingly) accept this argument for iOS, but for Mac OS it doesn't make any sense.

[still_grokking]

If you want to keep your shiny Apple stuff you're effectively trapped. Their walled garden approach works extremely well…

[coldtea]

What "walled garden"? The Mac-only apps aside, what's that that you couldn't get on Windows (and most even on Linux), either the same thing, or a zero-switch-cost subscription (it's not like you need to rebuy something to go from Music to Spotify for exampe).

iCloud? You can use Google Drive or Dropbox or whatever MS calls theirs. Apple Music? Pretty sure it plays at both.

Most major apps are cross platform (Adobe, Microsoft and such), or Electron based.

Syncing with your iPhone? You can do that from Windows and Linux as well. Airpods? Work with Android and Windows too.

And so on.

[joe_mamba]

How many long term MacOS users actually know how to use anything else than MacOS and their ecosystem apps and would feel comfortable switching away?

I mean Average Joes off the street, who can't find Ukraine on the map, not HN users of Macs with a SaaS side hustle.

[nozzlegear]

Then there's no actual walled garden here, just a vague "Mac users are too dumb to realize there are more options" line in the sand.

> I mean Average Joes off the street, who can't find Ukraine on the map

How many Ukrainians can find Iowa or Missouri on the map? This metric means nothing.

[joe_mamba]

>Then there's no actual walled garden here

With this bad faith line of reasoning that ignores user defaults, ecosystem ties and switching friction, Windows was also never a monopoly because companies and users could just switch to Mac or Linux whenever they wanted.

>How many Ukrainians can find Iowa or Missouri on the map?

Since when is Missouri a country?

[coldtea]

>How many Ukrainians can find Iowa or Missouri on the map?

Their country doesn't make decisions about American on their behalf (or even at all), so they don't have a moral obligation as citizens to. And Iowa and Missouri are mere states, and not even very interesting ones at that.

[joe_mamba]

>Macs are nowhere near a monopoly.

You didn't read what I said. I said MacOS IS a monopoly in the Apple ecosystem.

Apple users dissatisfied with how MacOS is changing, as the one I was replying to, have nothing else to switch to without uprooting themselves out of the Apple ecosystem altogether, which most don't do but just put up with it.

[linguae]

The Mac isn’t a monopoly, but choices for desktop operating systems are indeed limited. I use macOS, Windows, and Linux on a regular basis. The only one that’s improving is the Linux ecosystem. I prefer macOS to Windows, but macOS is not as polished in 2026 as it was in 2016 or especially in the Snow Leopard era.

[mikestorrent]

Apple used to solve this through the ruthless application of good taste; we hope this returns with the new CEO

[bigyabai]

Originally, it was "solved" because computers were the only thing Apple sold. They couldn't afford a Lisa without successes like the Apple II.

Now, Apple's incentives are changed. The App Store alone makes multiple times more money in a year than the sum of annual Mac and iPad sales put together. The OSes for these products are decidedly back-burner so Apple can focus on expanding AppleTV's IP library and lobby for Apple Pay. Ternus won't be your savior.

  John Ternus says Apple has ‘so much’ opportunity to expand services

https://9to5mac.com/2026/04/27/john-ternus-says-apple-has-so...