Free and Open Source Software

I've been an Apple user now for several years now and I get why someone would choose an Apple product, disregarding their monopolous philosophy. Every device is extremely well made with attention to detail, feels almost worth the money you're paying for. The software is adjusted for every device, on iPad you (most of the time) get software that utilizes the space and not just upscaled mobile software. I'm sure that goes for Android now too, but at least it didn't when I switched. The "ecosystem" works incredibly well, everything can be sychronized and my AirPods connect instantly.

However since I've started going to university my mindset has changed. Now I value repairability over being "Apple chique", I've started becoming more and more attached to the open source philosophy (not only concerning software) and frankly, I don't feel a need for Apple anymore so the drawbacks started weighing heavier. I swapped my MacBook for a ThinkPad running Linux. I don't care about the cloud anymore either - I'm much more happy with having my own, decentralised, cloud. I also feel like I want some change. Apple has become boring to me - but that is a personal taste.

Ethical consumption is nearly impossible to actually achieve which is why the best way to solve corporate bad practices is a healthy dose of regulation and government. It never hurts to, if you can, avoid doing business with certain bad actors if you'd like but often times you're trading one bad actor for another in a different way.

Personally though I'm not a fan of Apple products. They can be well made and their silicon is incredible. Very fast and energy efficient and for a few years it was far ahead of other arm offerings and in terms of efficiency is still ahead of mobile x86 offerings(though the gap isnt that gigantic anymore it does still offer far better single core performance per watt at low levels). Their software manages to be well designed and whether I agree with it or not manages to get certain features in the mainstream.

That said I prefer the more open way of doing things. Like for example take moving files into and out of an iphone. Pre-airdrop you had to use all kinds of syncing software in order to move files out whereas on android I could just plug it in and navigate my files like a usb. Post airdrop, well airdrop only works on apple products as a means of keeping you locked into the ecosystem. I dont think a good chunk of the way they do things is necessarily better, and they rarely do things first, and worst of all when they do it's often a proprietary way that is not compatible with other devices and OS.

I consider Apple to be one of the most evil corporations out there, but it appears that my interpretation of "evilness" seema to coincide with size a lot.
so maybe i just don't like (stupidly) successfull companies.

Anyway, I think Apple locks people in their very nice walled garden and in that garden uses a lot of public infrastructure (like open source software, but also other open services on the net), and gives comparatively very little back to the community.

and they do it, because they think it propably makes slightly more money.

Which is also the reason I don't trust their privacy promises at all, since they can't prove many of them.

Apple could be an enormous force for good, but to me it feels like they care more about making 0.5% more money to put into their hoard.

Terrible company, I do believe the world would be better if it vanished.

I don't like any of the big tech companies at all, Apple included. I think they all have way too much power. I don't trust the 'cloud' either - you don't truly own your data/media unless you have a local, DRM-free copy.

I think FOSSS shouldn't be some kind of religion, if you like Apple, great, go for it. However if you truly value privacy (while beeing better than Microsoft, Apple still collects some of your data) and freedom it certainly won't hurt to try out some alternatives. If you like them better it is a win-win situation, if not switch back.

Things you can do if you are interrested in FOSS, that don't necessary need you to change everything:

• Try some software alternatives for programms you are using (LibreOffice instead of Word, Gimp instead of Photoshop etc.) This lets you search for alternatives.
• Spin up a Linux VM and try it, or try to install linux on an old laptop. -And when you do that, look into KDE Connect as it offers connectivity between devices, that even Apple does not offer in some cases.
• If you are truly into it, you can even contribute to FOSS, to make them as good as Apple products.

This could be a huge philosophical discussion but I think it boiles down to a couple things. First and foremost, we all have to play the game with the cards we’re dealt. We don’t always have the luxury of choosing FOSS in our daily lives simply because of the way our society works. Apple does a great job at making devices integrated into our world that just work with a focus on privacy. I use them for those reasons. Sure some of their stuff is expensive. I didn’t buy my laptop, but it’s my 5th, and the best I’ve ever used. I think it’s worth it for the most part. Phones are on par with other big manufacturers anyway.

Everything else I can I use foss. My main power pc is EndeavorOS. I have another pc running Ubuntu server using docker to host services for myself.

Point is supporting things like the right to repair is important and you should where you can. But when it comes to the devices we need to use to participate in life, I like Apple.

I've decided that if I have to be in an ecosystem, it'll be Apple's. I currently have an iPhone, a Apple Watch, and I use the Airpods Pro daily.

I'm a programmer, and an engineer. I love to tinker with stuff. electrical, mechanical, software. Most of the time. But as I get older (now 26 so not too old, but old enough to remember my mom's tiny blue Nokia as the first cell phone in the house) and busier with life, I've realized that there's some stuff I want to just work. I don't care if I can customize it, I don't care if I have to spend a few minutes getting used to a new layout change that was "forced" on me.. For me, my phone isn't something to fool around with, hack, or mod out the wazoo. It's a business tool. My watch helps me keep track of my health, and all I have to do is put it on and keep it charged. The Airpods are so seamless to use it's silly. For this part of my life (phone, watch/health, listening), I want the absolute lowest amount of friction.

I can also defer software updates as long as I like, which is more than I can say for say Windows. I used the same OS from 2016 to 2020 because I didn't want to update to the new layouts. My iPhone would ask me to update every so often, but I'd just hit cancel and that'd be it until the next major update.

Apple is also a hardware company to begin with, as opposed to other companies with ecosystems, so with that I at least feel like they care a little bit less about making money off my data because they're already making money off me buying the hardware and iCloud.

I like to tinker. I don't buy apple products. I get that most people want a device that just works when they pick it up and integrates with the rest of their devices. Apple does this really well.

While I personally agree with your colleague, one must consider one's use case and the amount of time and effort it will take to replicate the things you like about the apple UX and ecosystem and make a judgement call. I have a Windows desktop, a Linux server, an Android phone and tablet and I spend a fair amount of time seeing them up and keeping them talking to one another to share data, but even then I can't get them to share settings simply like do not disturb.

Apple has innovated on the user experience to the point where if I pick up an iphone I can't navigate around it because it relies on a soft touch, "intuitive", gestural interface. And therefore it's easy for me to shun apple products on principle. The real hard work is migrating off the platform you know. And for people that were raised in the apple touch ecosystem, I don't realistically see many of them ever leaving.

I used to be the Samsung SME (subject matter expert) at my AT&T store. I was the only one in the store who used Samsung, and I defended them to the death. I left AT&T, got a job at Apple, and decided to make the switch.

I fell in love. I have the Pro Max 13, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and AirTags. You're spot on; I absolutely love the ecosystem. As cliche as it is to say, everything just works. Samsung is good. Apple is good. People have legitimate reasons for using either.

My amateur opinion: Apple makes beautiful and thoughtful devices that are tightly integrated into a system of services that work well. But I don't use them, mostly because of the closed nature of that ecosystem, and also because they are consistently more expensive. Back when you could jailbreak and sideload apps on iPhones, I had a series of iPhones and they were pretty good phones, although iTunes always sucked. While they were around, iPods were clever. But I preferred to buy music from a variety of places, I wanted to install apps that I wanted and not what were available on the App Store, and I really didn't like the user-hostile decisions Apple made to sell more hardware. Getting rid of the headphone jack was one of the worst decisions to me, as was Apple's dogmatic refusal to use USB-C until European regulators recently forced the change.

Really jumped in the deep end with your research, huh? :)

I guess a good place to start would be deciding what actually bothers you. Megacorp sucks because of [shitty capitalism, shady labor practices, locking down devices, privacy, insert other complaint]. Weigh those against the benefits you get.

My biggest concern is generally privacy and monetization of my data, but I still use an iPhone because my family wouldn’t get off my case about ease of sharing photos, videos. So I only have the iPhone. Don’t buy anything else from them. I turn off as much tracking and data collection as possible. I only have two outward-facing files in iCloud — my encrypted password keeper so that I can access it both from phones and mobile, and an encrypted file vault that can only be opened if you first get into the password keeper.

FWIW on the FOSS side, I still use Linux. I used to use GrapheneOS on a Pixel 5a that worked otherwise well.