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Comment by echelon | Hacker News Reader

The home computer has been replaced with the iPhone.

What boggles my mind is that the industry accepts Apple's restrictions on what kind of computing can happen, how their software can be distributed, and how their gross/margins are taxed.

These devices have done a perverse thing to our field.

Consumers love them, but fuck are they awful for freedom, business, and small time success.

We used to build platforms in the open that we all benefited from (ie. the Web). Even Microsoft Windows was and is more open than these goddamn monopoly devices.

The DOJ needs to rip Apple's control of the iPhone away. It's not their device anymore. It's the industry.

Computing belongs to the people. It'd make for a healthier playing field, and Apple would still be making bank.

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Personally I'm in love with the fact that Apple found a business model selling privacy and safety, while I'm also torn on the idea that Apple has been using their weight to bludgeon the competition into giving up a massive share of revenue.

At the same time, the weighing of leverage is precisely how the market has and still works to this day. Thus if you send me out there to negotiate with Popeye's (which really wants you to create an account), or Walmart, Facebook, or even a small company making todo apps, I will simply not win, and neither will my family members. I love that cross-app tracking is now opt-in, because that's not something I'd ever imagine negotiating with any company, ever. I love the fact that all subscription-based services purchased through the iOS platform can be managed in a centralized place.

And I will of course resent in my tiny, futile, pathetic way, those voices which say "Well, you as a free agent made these concessions in the marketplace. Didn't you get what you deserve?"

Why can't there be a consumer choice to throw your weight behind a mega-giant who intercedes forcefully on your behalf, in a marketplace that is all about the weighing of leverage?

There are dozens of hardware platforms running hundreds (if not thousands) of software stacks that a user can play with that aren't Apple's ecosystem. Everything from a Raspberry Pi to a Lenovo ThinkPad. It's a color-wheel of hardware and software out there.

Turns out the PC was an accident of history. Not an endpoint like some of us saw it, but simply an unfortunate stepping stone to the ultimate goal of making a really smart toaster. The end goal was never really to empower people, it was just to create a new market for rent-seeking via lock-in on a shiny new black box. No repairs allowed. No modding allowed. And you can go fuck yourself if you want the source code for anything. "Micro-computing," as it used to be called, was never intended as way for ordinary people to gain freedom and agency. It was just supposed to be another tool for the rich and powerful to extract wealth from everyone else. And now, thanks to always-online requirements, inescapable updates and aggressive planned obsolescence, that dream is finally a reality. Welcome back to the farm serf. You never really left.

> Turns out the PC was an accident of history

> The end goal was never really to empower people

whose end goal would that have even been?

you're talking like history possesses some sort of inherent narrative, instead of just being a bunch of people doing shit.

You could have a million downvotes, but you're eternally correct. Thank you.

I disagree. Micro-computing was not "intended" for anything, it just was and that's it.

Apple has ~20% smartphone marketshare worldwide. It's higher in the US, but the last numbers I saw put them <50%. In what world is that a monopoly?

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