Hacker News Reader

Comment by forbiddenvoid | Hacker News Reader

This argument really doesn't resonate with me. Like, if people want to download trash on their Windows computer, who am I to stop them? You can do that on your Mac and Linux devices too. People don't need to be protected by App Stores.

I'm not only concerned about that, though. The standard 30% cut of revenue flowing through the app if it was downloaded from the app store is also an issue.

In general, App Stores create a 'marketplace' where one doesn't need to exist. That it's the default method of getting software isn't really a benefit because it makes self-distribution harder (or impossible - which is really the anticompetitive issue here).

View on HN

> Like, if people want to download trash on their Windows computer, who am I to stop them?

I think that attitude was fine pre-internet, but these days we are all sharing a network and there's an analogy that can be drawn with public health policies. App stores are one small part of the strategy to help reduce the number of machines that end up as part of a bot net or other similar uses.

We always give up freedom in the name of security so so easily.

Why is that? Why does fear always win? Your argument is based on fear. Why do we favor fear over rationality?

You would choose a dictatorship over a democracy if it meant that you felt safe. This where that line of thinking leads.

You'd rather be safe than free.

It isn't about fear. The internet is a space we share.

Do you look at drunk driving laws as an irrational concession to fear?

The slope isn't nearly as slippery as you seem to think it is.

Seatbelt laws are not the analogy I would use. It's direct physical bodily harm vs some unknown and unquantifiable risk when installing a 3rd party app.

We got by just fine in the 80s and 90s without App stores. So much innovation came out of that world which established the dominant players who are in control now.

And you don't even get security with App stores. As we already know with all the malware found in Google Play apps.

App stores are simply keeping the big guys big and small guys small with few exceptions here and there.

It's just another walled garden that keeps the little guy out and keeps players like Google and Apple entrenched.

I dunno, do our drink driving laws sometimes get political freedom campaigners or sex workers murdered?

i agree that you should be able to do whatever you want with you device. if you want to download malware or try to manage it all yourself, then you should be able to do that. i think that out of the box, by default, having things managed by a package manager makes sense, especially for normies. this app store monopoly doesn't exist on android. you can very easily install fdroid or any other app store whenever you want. this issue does exist on ios though. if you would want to argue that alternative app stores or package managers should be front and center out of the box, I'd be more than fine with that as well.

> this app store monopoly doesn't exist on android. you can very easily install fdroid or any other app store whenever you want.

This isn't true. Other app stores cannot compete with the Play Store on feature parity due to limitations Google put in Android. For example, F-Droid cannot implement background installation of apps, batch installations, or automatic upgrading without first having root.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com