Are people inside apple fighting to drop the mandatory apple account for iOS and various core apple features?
I can buy a thinkpad and install linux on it without once creating a microsoft account. I can buy an android phone supported by GrapheneOS, and use it as a perfectly fine phone without ever creating a google account.
I cannot buy an iPhone without creating an apple account, without getting ads shoved in my face by apple, without them deciding what I can and can't install on it, and them charging me for the privilege of writing my own software.
Microsoft doesn't deserve as much shame here as Apple does since MS isn't requiring their hardware vendors to lock down the hardware to only be able to run Windows (even though they very well could). Apple, with iOS, is.
> I cannot buy an iPhone without creating an apple account
You can both buy and use an iPhone without creating an Apple account. You are limited to the built-in apps, but those built-in apps cover most common use-cases.
Most people wouldn't want to do this, of course. But you can.
I know the logic on what I’m about to say is not that tight, but…
For some reason, creating an account with Apple doesn’t feel like opening a can of worms like it does with Microsoft.
I know exactly what I’m getting when I open the one with Apple, and I have visibility into it from the settings of every device, feels secure and I never get emails or spam associated to it.
The Microsoft account is another story. It’s a black box, I don’t know what they are collecting, I know that even if it looks like a square today, it’ll be a hexagon tomorrow, and a triangle the next day. They’ll change the product name, merge with some other crap, etc. to access it, you’ll have to remember what the service was when you created it. Live? Hotmail? Outlook? Are they the same as my windows account? Who knows.
It’s just not trust worthy IME.
I don’t have an issue with creating an account, I have an issue not knowing why I need it or what I get from it.
Most common use cases are social media, messaging (WhatsApp, Messanger, Telegram, no one is using SMS anymore), ID apps, payment and banking apps.
You could skip social media, but without the others you would basically have to carry around a second phone or be severely handicapped just trying to live a normal life.
Beside all of that, the idea that a $1000 iPhone is usable without an account because you can SMS and check emails is laughable disingenuous.
Being unable to install an alternate app store or sideload my own apps means I need an apple ID to use the computer I purchased.
Again, android phones with GrapheneOS or windows machines with linux let me use my hardware fully without creating any advertising-ridden-evil-corporate-company's account, including building and running my own apps.
I can't even build my own code for iOS, let alone run it, without an apple account (and paying apple money).
> windows machines with linux let me use my hardware fully without creating any advertising-ridden-evil-corporate-company's account
Does Windows machines with Linux here mean WSL2 on Windows? I think the problem people have had with Microsoft accounts is exaclty that they need to use a Microsoft account to use their computers and they don't like it.
If it instead means Linux machine (not sure what Windows has to do with it), then I think people are genuinely happy to have the freedom to use their hardware as they see fit without asking for permission or updating Microsoft or Apple.
You can use an Apple computer without an Apple ID and build your own code on it, but that does seem to be a holdout from the old days when Apple had products like the II Plus and System 9. It feels like they're moving towards the Microsoft model of /mandatory/ accounts even for their desktop OS.
I mean installing linux, not WSL. I can install linux without ever thinking about a MS account on most windows laptops.
Apple restricts their iDevice computers to only run iOS, with no option to install linux.
Microsoft _could_ require that lenovo or dell lock down secureboot such that linux cannot be installed, but they don't (not to mention microsoft surface pros can run linux), so apple is clearly doing more to restrict my freedom with their devices than microsoft is with theirs.
Ok, that's all I meant, you can use the phone without logging in. Yeah you need it for the App Store. Well even if the App Store let you download as guest, the real problem would be that the phone doesn't let you download from elsewhere (mostly).
There is also the ability to build code on your Mac and run on your phone without paying, but pretty sure at least one step in that requires a free account. Guess you could download, build, and run open-source apps that way.
I use both, almost on a daily basis, but spend most of my time in Linux (Arch btw).
Both of them deserve equal amount of shame because they're both trying to do the same, force you to have an online account associated with a local user profile, either directly or indirectly.
Not sure why it has to be a contest who "we should shame the most" or whatever, how about saying both of them suck when it comes to this?
I can buy a thinkpad and install linux on it without once creating a microsoft account. I can buy an android phone supported by GrapheneOS, and use it as a perfectly fine phone without ever creating a google account.
I cannot buy an iPhone without creating an apple account, without getting ads shoved in my face by apple, without them deciding what I can and can't install on it, and them charging me for the privilege of writing my own software.
Microsoft doesn't deserve as much shame here as Apple does since MS isn't requiring their hardware vendors to lock down the hardware to only be able to run Windows (even though they very well could). Apple, with iOS, is.