I agree and want to emphasize a few things:
1. Most users are not capable of using general purpose computing technology in a wild, networked environment safely.
2. Too many people who matter to ignore insist, "something must be done."
3. And so something shall be done.
4. Apple is navigating difficult waters. As much as I disapprove of how they have chosen a path for iOS, the fact is many people find those choices are high value.
5. I do, for the most part, approve of their choices for Mac OS. I am not sure how they prevent malicious code without maintaining some sort of information for that purpose.
6. We are arriving at a crossroads many of us have been talking about for a long time. And that means we will have to make some hard choices going forward. And how we all navigate this will impact others in the future for a long time.
Look at Microsoft! They are collecting everything! And they absolutely will work with law enforcement anytime, any day, almost any way!
I sure as hell want nothing to do with Windows 11. Most technical people I know feel the same way.
Screenies every 3 to 5 seconds? Are they high? Good grief! Almost feels like raw rape. Metaphorically, of course.
Then we have Linux. Boy am I glad I took the time way back in the 90's to learn about OSS, Stallman, read words from interesting people, Raymond, Perkins, Searles, Lessig, Doctorow, many others!
Linus did all of tech one hell of a solid and here we are able to literally dumpster dive and build whatever we want just because we can. Awesome sauce in a jar right there
, but!
(And this really matters)
...Linux just is not going to be the general answer for ordinary people. At least not yet. Maybe it will be soon.
It is an answer in the form of a crude check and balance against those in power. Remember the "something shall be done" people? Yeah, those guys.
And here we are back to Apple.
Now, given the context I put here, Apple has ended up really important. Working professionals stand something of a chance choosing Mac OS rather than be forced into Windows 11, transparent edition!
And Apple does not appear willing to work against their users best interests, unless they are both compelled to by law, and have lost important challenges to said law.
If you want that, your choices are Apple and Linux!
7. Open, general purpose computing is under threat. Just watch what happens with Arm PC devices and the locked bootloaders to follow just like mobile devices.
Strangely, I find myself wanting to build a really nice Intel PC while I still can do that and actually own it and stand some basic chance of knowing most of what it doing for me. Or TO ME.
No Joke!
As I move off Win 10, it will be onto Linux and Mac OS. Yeah, hardware costs a bit more, and yeah it needs to be further reverse engineered for Linux to run on it too, but Apple does not appear to get in the way of all that. They also do not need to help and generally don't. Otherwise, the Linux work is getting done by great people we all really should recognize and be thankful for.
That dynamic is OK with me too. It is a sort of harsh mutual respect. Apple gets to be Apple and we all get to be who we are and do what we all do with general purpose computers as originally envisioned long ago.
We all can live pretty easily with that.
So, onward we go! This interesting time will prove to be more dangerous than it needs to be.
If it were not for Apple carving out a clear alternative things would look considerably more draconian, I could and maybe almost should say fascist and to me completely unacceptable.