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Comment by foxpurple | Hacker News Reader

There are different methods of security, one where you assume the user is trusted but that the programs are not and one where you assume the user and the programs are not trusted.

iOS is the second version. Linux with flatpak and SELinux is the first one. It is certainly possible to secure Linux a lot while still allowing the user to tweak whatever they want. There is a tool called flatseal which lets you adjust the sandbox settings for any Flatpak.

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Well, the problem is that many desktop workflows require data passing through many apps. How would you do that on the iOS model?

iOS has 2 solutions to this. They have a push models where you “share” the file to the next app you want to use. And they also have a traditional file store model where all apps can request to save and request to load files.

Critically, apps can not directly read your files, they can show a button which will open the OS file picker and the user can pick a file to open which then provides access to the app.

This means that opening a game does not instantly expose all of your sensitive files.

> Critically, apps can not directly read your files, they can show a button which will open the OS file picker and the user can pick a file to open which then provides access to the app.

Unfortunately this model breaks down for any kind of file type that doesn't simply consist of a single, atomic file, e.g. various constellations of media files (playlists, subtitles, multi-part videos), multi-part archives, HTML files, georeferenced imagery with sidecar files, etc. etc.

iOS apps can be given access to files and folders created in other apps. I have no idea when this was added, I didn't use iOS between 3.x and 14.x, but it's there.

https://juno.sh/ios-file-system/ for some info about how it works from the perspective of an application that might need to access other apps' data.

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