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Comment by omnicognate | Hacker News Reader

Do tell me how I can run my own home screen, directly access the filesystem, write my own device driver or tweak the kernel without voiding my warranty and risking bricking my phone using a jailbreak exploit, assuming one is available for my device.

This "you can build and directly deploy an app to a limited number of devices if you're on the developer program and have a mac, therefore you can 'hack iOS all you want'" meme is borderline dishonest.

Also, the fact that you "fail to see the fascination" is of little significance to those who do want to develop on-device. You don't get to make "you can hack iOS all you want" work by restricting what people are allowed to want.

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> voiding my warranty and risking bricking

nut up. hacking has never been perfectly safe and has never had a promise of easy. if you want it enough, you can make it happen.

Piss off, I'll do my tinkering on a platform that isn't continually trying to prevent me from doing it, thank you very much. I'll use my expensive pocket bauble as the limited device it is designed to be. Just don't try and gaslight me into thinking it's in any sense a general purpose computer.

You do you. The rest of us do our tinkering however we choose based upon our own situation, as well. Some people only own the "expensive pocket bauble" (you know, economics are a thing) and they're still out there hacking on it rather than whining about the walled garden. We all know that there are other ecosystems that are more modification-friendly. We don't need to hear your over-qualified internet rant. hence the "nut up" comment. "void my warranty" sheesh. What point are you trying to make?

There are plenty of kids out there tinkering and hacking in the truest sense on iOS and macOS using one of their relative's dev accounts.

> voiding my warranty and risking bricking my phone using a jailbreak exploit

Messing around with the kernel generally does run the risk of voiding warranties and bricking devices.

So?

So why are you mentioning it like it’s a unique drawback? It’s inherent to the activity!

For one thing, it isn't. I can do linux kernel dev on my desktop and laptop without voiding my warranty or risking bricking anything.

And most of the things I'd want to do with an iOS device that I'm prevented from doing wouldn't involve any kernel-level work anyway.

But more importantly that's the most pathetic justification I've ever heard. By that logic, since playing the piano is difficult we might as well sell pianos with all the keys glued together.

The truth of it is that Apple products are not designed for tinkering and they actively resist attempts to do it. To spend my time plumbing their internals to add value to a product that treats me an my kind as a sort of infection would be a pure waste. I'll do my hacking on Linux and use my iPhone for arguing with people on hackernews, it's fine.

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