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Comment by nouryqt | Hacker News Reader

If you're on linux I can only recommend ifuse with the libimobiledevice package. I followed the guide on the arch wiki[0] and could simply mount my iPhone to a directory[1] and then just drag and drop them over. For some reason there were 1000 pictures per folder so I had a few different folders, but otherwise it was super simple.

[0]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/IOS

[1]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/IOS#Manual_mounting

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I connect and disconnect my iPhone often, so I prefer Gnome's default file manager Nautilus with gvfs-afc and or gvfs-gphoto2 (1).

My devices show up when I plug them in and I can see all my apps that expose storage in Apple's Files, with accompanying icons (2). Device folders like Downloads are off limits, though (3).

1: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/IOS#Using_a_graphical_file_...

2: https://nexus.armylane.com/files/Gnome-Nautilus-iPhone.png

3: This entails much pointless duplication of files on the iPhone just to be able to see them from my PC. Apple would prefer, no doubt, that I use AirDrop or iCloud. But my Linux laptop means staying out of Apple's walled garden.

Can also testify to this, also works for transferring files to the device from Linux if app supports (ref VLC, etc). However, the speed is mind-numbingly slow.

Faster and easier to just sync with iCloud, then download from iCloud.

So, why not just vote with my wallet, and get a device that either is more friendly to 3rd party software interaction or simply allows saving to a movable SD card? Because overall things work very smoothly, and it is easy to find and manage settings. These things balance out well against the frustrations, especially when I know from experience that non-Apple devices will present their own frustrations.

To be fair, the philosophical/theoretical/economic foundations of antitrust legislation confuse me. This has not been helped by media bites a la NYT. Maybe if I had months and years of free time and good material I could form a worthy opinion. But for now, I just have trouble seeing how statements like this from OP are contradictory: "The company says this makes its iPhones more secure than other smartphones. But app developers and rival device makers say Apple uses its power to crush competition."

This is like that comment on the launch post for Dropbox all over again.

Look, they're clearly trying to help someone deal with a real problem using the tools available today. They're out here offering someone sunscreen and you're mad they're not yelling at God instead.

The Dropbox comment was a highly technical person belittling an app without realising that it solves problems for normal people. They thought that normal people would have no problem finding and purchasing a managed FTP service, mount it with curlftpfs, and then use SVN to get a Dropbox-like service.

The comment you’re responding to is a technical person offering advice on a way out of a sticky situation to another (assumed) technical person. It didn’t feel like they were trying to say that the average person should be able to read archwiki and use libimobiledevice to pull pictures off an iPhone… but I could be misreading the situation

Definitely didn't want to come across as belittling or anything. Just stumbled on that tool a few weeks ago when I tried to backup my iPhone photos and was surprised how well it worked and how painless it was. Maybe it's because I'm not a native speaker, but I had no bad intentions, just wanted to tell what worked for me.

>a technical person offering advice on a way out of a sticky situation to another (assumed) technical person.

even if that assumption was correct, they mentioned this being done for their wive's iPhone. Which is assumedly a non-technical person given that the best solution was a paid cloud subscription.

I don't think this is comparable. The parent comment doesn't make a value judgment on whether the strategy of using the Linux utility is a comparable offering; it's just a potentially suggestion to try to help when it seems like someone is frustrated with the solution they currently have. Giving a highly technical way of doing something isn't inherently a problem; the issue is when someone claims that it's more than sufficient and that no easier way needs to exist, but that didn't happen here.

I think that's a little unfair. The Dropbox comment was "it's absurd that people would need this consumer-friendly thing; just do [thing that only fairly-technical people could realistically accomplish]". This situation is "so-called easy-to-use consumer device is blocking you from doing something? here's an alternative that requires some technical know-how, but unfortunately there isn't a great solution here".

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