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2603 points mattsolle | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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elmo2you ◴[] No.25076037[source]
Sincerely and without any intention to troll or be sarcastic: I'm puzzled that people are willing buy a computer/OS where (apparently) software can/will fail to launch if some central company server goes down. Maybe I'm just getting this wrong, because I can honestly not quite wrap my head around this. This is such a big no-go, from a systems design point of view.

Even beyond unintentional glitches at Apple, just imagine what this could mean when traffic to this infra is disrupted intentionally (e.g. to any "unfavorable" country). That sounds like a really serious cyber attack vector to me. Equally dangerous if infra inside the USA gets compromised, if that is going to make Apple computers effectively inoperable. Not sure how Apple will shield itself from legal liability in such an event, if things are intentionally designed this way. I seriously doubt that a cleverly crafted TOS/EULA will do it, for the damage might easily go way beyond to just users in this case.

Again, maybe (and in fact: hopefully) I'm just getting this all wrong. If not, I might know a country or two where this could even warrant a full ban on the sale of Apple computers, if there is no local/national instance of this (apparently crucial) infrastructure operating in that country itself, merely on the argument of national security (and in this case a very valid one, for a change).

All in all, this appears to be a design fuck-up of monumental proportions. One that might very well deserve to have serious legal ramifications for Apple.

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AsyncAwait ◴[] No.25076348[source]
And I keep hearing how Linux is a toy whereas macOS 'just works'.
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damnencryption ◴[] No.25076412[source]
A lot of it is just people parroting the same old boring tropes. They couldn't believe Linux had gotten easier to use than windows. I know this. I installed Windows few days ago. I can't install steam or chromium without getting blocked by windows. I have to download it from external sites while both of these are available in the software store on Ubuntu. It didn't nag me to login, switched my browser to edge after updates, forced me to read a marketing manual before starting the OS.

The search is useless. On Linux, it's so much better.

I had to download and run a bunch of scripts to get rid of the amount of data it was sending back home. I had to remove the bloat and ads it came with.

Give https://pop.system76.com/ a try if you don't believe that Linux is easier to use. Most people don't need to open the terminal anymore.

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1. evilos ◴[] No.25076536[source]
> I know this. I installed Windows few days ago. I can't install steam or chromium without getting blocked by windows.

Sorry what do you mean you can't install steam or chromium in Windows? Millions of people run this software on Windows. - A mint user.

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2. damnencryption ◴[] No.25076598[source]
Windows smart screen. I can install it but sometimes it is trigger happy so I have to go through a pop up.
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3. Biganon ◴[] No.25077093[source]
That's not really the same as not being able to run these apps, don't you think?

But besides this bad example, I agree with you. Windows has always been a black box, but as time goes by it's become a stupid black box. It feels so incredibly refreshing when I go back to Linux and I feel in control of the entire system. Almost like a physical sensation.

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4. damnencryption ◴[] No.25077465{3}[source]
For me, no.

For my grandpa, yes. Windows smart screen hides the run anyway button as more info link.