Comment by dmitrygr
1 year ago
> You'd expect hacker types (folks who hang out here on HN) would be 100% behind an open-source operating system
Nope
I work on embedded security which is why there is no IoT shit at home.
I am forced to be tech support for my family, which is why they have iPhones and why i support locked-down hardware - less pain for me removing sideloaded shit than when they had Android devices.
I am bored of maintaining things - i just want them to work, which is why my WRT54G is gone and I use UniFi gear.
And I am tired of "slightly annoying, but i am supporting open source", i just want my laptop to wake up from sleep every time and last a while day, which is why I use a MacBook.
If it was open source IN ADDITION to doing everything else i want, sure. Being open source by itself is NOT a feature i am willing to pay for with any inconvenience. And being locked down IS a convenience when you are managing devices for people with no digital hygiene (aka: family)
And if you were the one locking down what the phones could run, instead of the duopoly?
I'm days later responding, sorry. I should have suggested more clearly: what if a Linux-based solution gave you the administrative control meeting or exceeding what you currently expect from less open solutions? Would you pay for it?
Yes, but it doesn't. In Russian we have a saying:
If, if only, in my mouth -- mushroom grew, well then it would not be a mouth, it would be a garden. (The point is to not engage in impossible hypotheticals)
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I was the one maintaining my WRT54G and my Linux laptop. Took too much time. That is the point.