And this seems understandable to prevent a proliferation of 100's of "browsers" trying to steal your data. You actually have to be developing something legit -- not just reskinning a browser engine and leaving it.
You can already do that today (yes, on iOS) by using your own developer-signing certificate (because if it's from github, you can build it from source; or re-link/assembly prebuilt linkable binaries if you really feel like it).
Remember the vast, vast majority of iOS users are people like (I assume) our parents - or people we knew in the late-1990s/early-2000s with an excessive number of Internet Explorer toolbars and Bonzi Buddy. I support Apple's mission to keep crap like that off their platform, but Apple sleepwalked into prompting this regulation of their app-store because they weren't the good-stewards they said they'd be - so I'm ambivalent about the whole thing.
That still requires you to pay Apple for a developer account ($99 USD/year), requires you to own a Mac, and requires you to abide by all of Apple's rules. Meaning that Apple _can_ still prevent you from installing a sketchy browser downloaded from Github since they control everything about the build-and-signing system on the iPhone.
https://developer.apple.com/help/account/create-certificates...
Not if you want a browser with a JIT Javascript compiler, which for better or worse is a basic requirement for a broadly usable browser.
It’s just a niche, so no one bothered porting a whole ass browser with its JIT compiler and GC and whatnot to ios for that 3 users. Now it can change.
In AltStore's case, this means you need to be on the same wifi network as the computer running AltServer. I don't know whether it would be theoretically possible to do this over WAN, but it definitely isn't practical at a large scale.
Tailscale unfortunately doesn't support it...yet?
They do the same thing with the VPN entitlement. If you want to filter network traffic on-device, you have to apply for it and identify yourself to Apple. If they didn't do this China would be banning iPhones left and right.
A whole bunch of tech guys fundamentally don’t understand how naïve many users are and how hostile the environment is.
What we need is a fundamentally different model for device security in our users. Their device is insecure and everything they might do online will expose them to an attacker.
But that overturns 40 years of UI improvement so people can use their devices without thinking.
Not if you want to use a JIT compiler or multiprocess support
“I should be allowed to…” will always reek of entitlement. Pick your hardware and platform on your likes and needs. There are plenty of options to choose from.