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Comment by AsyncAwait | Hacker News Reader

> All the comments saying “just allow side-loading apps/third-party stores and let people decide themselves” ignore the fact that by doing so then iOS will end up with the same virus/malware issues that you see on Windows and Android.

Why? Who is forcing YOU to sideload?

There's no reason why the default couldn't be status quo and you'd only opt in into sideloading, this way the users who want the walled garden still get it and the users who want to sideload can optionally opt into that.

Why is it always an either/or?

As for Android, I'm pretty confident in saying that F-Droid, which is a 3rd party store, is generally safer than even the Play Store.

Android's problem is the lax review of apps even on the Play Store, lack of updates soon after purchase etc. Most users on Android don't even have sideloading enabled, that's not a huge vector.

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Because 99% of the user base isn’t tech savvy and will install all sorts of crap without realizing the consequences of doing so.

I may be capable of sticking to the App Store and not side-loading apps, but many of my friends, family and non-developer coworkers are not. They’ll click on random links in their mailbox, ads from apps and when browsing the web.. the end result is that they end up accidentally having their homepage, search engine and browser hijacked, they get redirected to spam websites, links on websites gets replaced with affiliate links, their sensitive information gets stolen, etc.

I’ve never had to help fix an iPhone and I don’t know anyone who’s been infected with malware (besides e.g. TikTok secretly copying clipboard and such), however for Windows and Android then I have people reach out to me on a monthly basis because they accidentally installed something that fucked up their computer/phone and they need help fixing it.

As for F-Droid, I hope you realize that their store is even more locked down than the App Store, and it’s as far as I’m aware the only secure third-party store on Android.

> I’ve never had to help fix an iPhone and I don’t know anyone who’s been infected with malware (besides e.g. TikTok secretly copying clipboard and such), however for Windows and Android then I have people reach out to me on a monthly basis because they accidentally installed something that fucked up their computer/phone and they need help fixing it.

All well and good, but this is not due to sideloading. That is an option that is disabled by default and the majority of people keep it that way. There's sketchy apps on the Play Store itself, which does not require you sideloading. I feel like you're conflating sideloading with malware here.

> As for F-Droid, I hope you realize that their store is even more locked down than the App Store

Not sure what you mean exactly, considering you can even have your own repos in F-Droid, but in any case the point is that it is a 3rd party store.

I don't think anyone is arguing no store can be locked down if you have multiple choices.

> All well and good, but this is not due to sideloading.

It is. iPhones don’t suffer from these malware issues precisely because everything is locked down and you can’t get apps to the iPhone without Apple’s manual approval. If Android was locked down and only allowed apps to be installed through F-Droid then they wouldn’t have any malware issues either.

The reason F-Droid is safe is because they’re also locked down and their approval process is even more strict than Apple’s.

> I don't think anyone is arguing no store can be locked down if you have multiple choices.

What I’m saying is that once you allow third-party app installations then malware will follow. And as we can see with Macs, not even Apple will be able to prevent it no matter how much they try to discourage people from downloading apps outside the App Store. The malware you see on Macs are a result of users downloading apps outside the App Store, and the same thing would happen to iPhones if they allowed third-party app installations.

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