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Comment by mo_42 | Hacker News Reader

I'm a long-term Linux user and started buying Apple products long ago. I still keep my iPhone 4S around because I think it's a piece of art. I think the hardware and physical design of Apple products is really great.

When I heard about this new EU regulation, I started to consider retiring my iPhone. I developed my own iOS app, but I'm unable to run it permanently because I need to get it approved by Apple to install it on my own device. PWAs are an alternative I was considering, and I'm also using some from others.

If this is true. I'll switch to Android. The only device I'd keep using actively is the M1 MacBook because it's running Asahi Linux and I haven't booted into MacOS for months now.

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> I developed my own iOS app, but I'm unable to run it permanently because I need to get it approved by Apple to install it on my own device.

This isn’t the case anymore. If using Expo you can also do it through EAS Build.

https://developer.apple.com/help/account/manage-profiles/cre...

https://docs.expo.dev/build/internal-distribution/#22-config...

I still need to pay $100 per year, and I need to beg Apple for VPN capabilities in case I want to work on software like Wireguard.

This just looks like either ad hoc or enterprise distribution, which has nothing to do with Expo and has existed for years.

Aren't you still required to have a paid dev account?

I bought an iPhone last year. I started regretting it after 3 months of usage. Trivial things are a burden to set up, like:

- custom ringtone;

- emulators;

- lock screen rotation in landscape;

- listen to music from local storage without an Apple subscription;

I could go on and on. Most of them have solutions, but again, a burden to configure compared to an Android device. My next smartphone will be Android, once again. I just wish small smartphones were more common and had battery life comparable to Apple's.

I bought a second hand MacBook Pro 2015 to use Linux on. I'll let Asahi cook a bit more before moving to an M series.

> listen to music from local storage without an Apple subscription

That this is a burden to do is straight up false. Playing from local storage works the same as it did since the days of the iPod.

I stood in line on launch day in June 2007 for the first iPhone, and used one exclusively until 2022 when I started running it side-by-side with a Pixel running GrapheneOS.

I personally tried it with Apple Music and it did not work if you had no connectivity — and, in fact, because about half of the app itself appears to be loaded on demand, parts of the UI were non-functional as well.

Also, it was not possible for me to download the equivalent of my Discover Weekly playlist for use offline; it HAD to be streamed for each. and. every. play.

I gave up and went back to Spotify. A few months later, I wiped the iPhone and sold it, leaving me with GrapheneOS exclusively.

Just last night I wiped the storage of my last Mac and it will be given away.

Given the direction Apple is going, I made the right call, which is a damn shame.

I am in the same boat and I suspect a lot of the early hour Apple users are in a similar process of thinking about it.

Some of the main draws of Apple were the freedom of the platform as a whole and the total cost of ownership that was much lower than the price tag would suggest at first.

Nowadays not only do you pay for the privilège of locked down hardware but the software is very often "meh" at best, when it's not completely trash compared to the alternatives. And their push to everything subscription with the inability to both upgrade/repair the hardware easily makes the price tag unpalatable. They aren't better built than many expensive options nowadays... Most of the current Apple software works well only if you want to pay for content, for your own stuff the softwares are rather lacking which makes the base offering uninteresting and since 3rd party software has become extremely expensive in the ecosystem it truly is a luxury platform.

In the end, there is nothing that is better done on Apple's ecosystem nowadays, most of their historical advantage have evaporated and arguing about the battery life of Apple Silicon seems like splitting hair considering the overall cost...

I play music from local storage every day and the UI just works. We'll all know from the front page of this site the moment it stops working.

I could download playlists I made for use offline, but not the one that changes every week.

A few months ago, I asked Siri to play a specific song from my iTunes library. I've done this successfully many times before, but this time it misunderstood which song I requested. The song it thought I asked for wasn't present in my library, but it was present in Apple Music. Without asking for confirmation, it enrolled me in a trial subscription and begin streaming.

The actual Siri response is:

> I wasn't able to find 'nonexistent' in your Apple Music library. Search on Apple Music or ask for it on a different app.

The wording is confusing, but Apple Music library in this context means local. It doesn't enroll me to anything.

This is why I don’t trust Siri or ANY other type of “assistant”. Stuff like this.

You can continue using iPhones that don’t downgrade to iOS 17. Unless you want to stick it to the Apple.

How's Asahi on the M1 macbook? I'm considering switching, too.

Feels like it's constantly improving. I'm running it since 1.5 years. Battery life is much better now. It even supports TLP (with the AUR version).

Hard to tell what I'm missing currently. But I'm using rather basic tools in the command line and all these work fine. Of course Firefox works. Inkscape, Darktable, TexLive, too.

Looking at the site, it looks like it still doesn't support USB-C displays or Thunderbolt, which unfortunately, for me, is a dealbreaker (I use my MBA with a Thunderbolt dock on my desk). Looks like I'll still have to wait for a while.

How's battery life compared to macOS?

same. They think they are the only unix in town.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39299007#39377420

I wanted to flesh this out some more.

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