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Comment by orionblastar | Hacker News Reader

"Screw your rights and liberties to run what you want on OUR OS X!" -Apple

This is why I chose Ubuntu over Mac OS X. I have a Macbook and OS X 10.7 on it, I got tired of being restricted and locked out. Then I found that Ubuntu was more open and less restrictive. I replaced Windows 8 on my PC with Ubuntu 12.10 and my Acer laptop no longer runs Windows 7 but Ubuntu 12.10 (I won it at a church raffle) and my Macbook now gathers dust, I'll only use it when I get around to developing iOS apps or something. For everything else it is useless to me now.

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You can run anything you want in OS X. This block for Java is part of a (easily deactivated) security system to prevent malware or critically vulnerable software from compromising your system.

I think you missed his point. :)

Quite possibly! Have re-read, but only see a misinformed comment. What was the point?

Nope not when Apple has the ability to block anything on OS X remotely. You unblocked it, and then they do another check and block it again.

What is to stop Apple from blocking free and open source software in the same way? Say they want you to buy iWork, not use LibreOffice for free, so they put in a block for LibreOffice. Now let's say they don't want you using Firefox or Chrome and they want you to use Safari instead, so they block Firefox and Chrome. Citing that they are all 'security risks' because they are code Apple does not control. BTW LibreOffice and OpenOffice.Org are Java based, and this Java block would stop them from working in the web browser to display documents.

There will come a time with Mac OS X that Apple will lock it down like they did to iOS, and you'll have to jailbreak it to run what you want on it. This will be done for security reasons, of course, to protect the user.

Just turn off the auto update for the blacklist (IIRC, it's in the Security prefpane). "Problem" solved?

Could you elaborate on exactly what you are restricted and locked out from?

Seeing how nice the new ultrabooks are in general is really attractive. I'm sure Ubuntu runs pretty well on a Macbook Air as well?

I'm not tied to OSx as much as the build and form factor of my machine.

Truth. At least once a week (sometimes more) I'm tempted to install Arch on my MBP.

Truthfully though, there are some truly incredible tools for developers on Apple… not all are without comparable tools in the Linux world, but it always makes me question myself.

I love my MBA but am due for an 8GB one. I'd be open to dual booting into Ubuntu. There's not much I need from any OS anymore that I can think of, it would be an interesting experiment.

I put Arch on my MBA a while back. I used it exclusively for a while, but ended up going back to OS X. The trackpad drivers just aren't there yet, and with such a limited keyboard I really need the support for 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-finger gestures.

I just installed Slackware on my 2007 17" MBP because Leopard was EOL'd and I'm not enamoured with Mountain Lion as a development environment. I wish I had done it sooner.

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