The issue with a walled garden is that abuse is inevitable. There is no team within Apple that is advocating on behalf of the user experience, there is merely “Okay, what’s our market share and user habits?” and “Alright, how can we further monetize and lead customers towards spending more?”.
The walled garden experience within Apple isn’t monstrous or equivalent to ad-ridden crap out the gate by it’s mere existence, but when you cede that level of control over, it will inevitability be enshittified. When you chose an Apple product, you are betting on a publicly traded company chasing profit margins to not abuse you in the lifetime of your devices. It’s a poor wager.
With ios 26 they f-ed up safari real bad & other browsers are worse performing / laggy even though they are also safari.
So yes, I trusted Apple to not mess with anything too important & they have not for the 5 years I’ve been using Apple products, but now that is over. Guess Android is back on the menu for my next device, or maybe even a Jolla Phone.
None of this is untrue about Android though, which is now being locked down further. Meanwhile, AltStore PAL is expanding to Australia, Japan, Brazil and the UK over the next few months.
That’s definitely a welcome development for sure (albeit only due to regulatory compliance).
For sure, Google’s attempts to try and slam the Android ecosystem suck (definitely don’t want to paint them as “good guys” compared to apple overall), but luckily there are communities and manufacturers trying to prevent the backsliding.
The most public example would be GrapheneOS (what I’m currently using), but there are other projects like the Fairphone and Pinephone that are currently being iterated on. Heck, GrapheneOS is speaking to an Android OEM right now to make hardware not tied to Google’s ecosystem (Pixel line).
The best case scenario is both sides improve: Apple’s altstores become more common and widespread due to compliance with the EU, and Android users fork from Google’s status quo and have an escape hatch from the enshittification.
The issue with a walled garden is that abuse is inevitable. There is no team within Apple that is advocating on behalf of the user experience, there is merely “Okay, what’s our market share and user habits?” and “Alright, how can we further monetize and lead customers towards spending more?”.
The walled garden experience within Apple isn’t monstrous or equivalent to ad-ridden crap out the gate by it’s mere existence, but when you cede that level of control over, it will inevitability be enshittified. When you chose an Apple product, you are betting on a publicly traded company chasing profit margins to not abuse you in the lifetime of your devices. It’s a poor wager.
With ios 26 they f-ed up safari real bad & other browsers are worse performing / laggy even though they are also safari.
So yes, I trusted Apple to not mess with anything too important & they have not for the 5 years I’ve been using Apple products, but now that is over. Guess Android is back on the menu for my next device, or maybe even a Jolla Phone.
None of this is untrue about Android though, which is now being locked down further. Meanwhile, AltStore PAL is expanding to Australia, Japan, Brazil and the UK over the next few months.
That’s definitely a welcome development for sure (albeit only due to regulatory compliance).
For sure, Google’s attempts to try and slam the Android ecosystem suck (definitely don’t want to paint them as “good guys” compared to apple overall), but luckily there are communities and manufacturers trying to prevent the backsliding.
The most public example would be GrapheneOS (what I’m currently using), but there are other projects like the Fairphone and Pinephone that are currently being iterated on. Heck, GrapheneOS is speaking to an Android OEM right now to make hardware not tied to Google’s ecosystem (Pixel line).
The best case scenario is both sides improve: Apple’s altstores become more common and widespread due to compliance with the EU, and Android users fork from Google’s status quo and have an escape hatch from the enshittification.