Valuing security over freedom, huh? Remimds me of a quote about deserving neither… (Besides, I have a Nexus 5 from six years ago, the updates are still coming…)
Okay, Google's privacy's suck. I'm definitely unhappy about it. But let's not forget Apple's lock down sucks just as hard. I'd even go as far as saying that this exclusive store thing should be forbidden. People should have root rights over their phone, and Apple should be forbidden to prevent them. Instead, people can get in legal trouble from sharing information about jailbreaking.
If I do banking on my mobile device, then yes, I value security. I also value security, when the device contains a non-negligible amount of personal information that tends to be valuable in certain scenarios.
It's not some ephemeral boogeyman threat management you seem to make it out to be. For me, this IS freedom (from Google's invasive practices and questionable business decisions). I choose Apple because due to their business model they at least have far less motivation to sell my data to the Chinese or other entities. Of course we cannot know the true behind-the-scenes.
> Apple's lock down sucks just as hard
Does it for the vast majority of users who don't need to ssh into their phone for (at best) tinkering reasons? How many people are seriously feeling the negative impact here? I'd argue that the majority of non-tech-savvy users are better of this way.
Even as a developer, I am not missing anything in the App Store. Questionable decisions by Apple have so far not collided with my interests but that is too selfish of an argument to make, I suppose. Although I do assume that it holds true for a very high percentage of users. I am open for opposing points.
> Does it for the vast majority of users who don't need to ssh into their phone for (at best) tinkering reasons?
That's a hard question. Probably, I'd guess. See, what happens with tinkerers has influence over the other users. Stuff happens in an open platform that just doesn't, in a closed one. Though the biggest effects tend to be seen 10 years down the line, when tinkerers turn professionals (or not, if they didn't get to tinker at all).
> I'd argue that the majority of non-tech-savvy users are better of this way.
Non-tech-savvyness ought to be wiped off the surface of this planet. For the tech illiterate's own sake. Yes, it means less time to do some other stuff. No that other stuff is not more important. Even when you are busy saving lives, tech is too pervasive to ignore. I'm not asking for much. If people just stopped treating their computers like sentient beings that should be pleased with voodoo magic, if they just understand that bugs come from human errors somewhere up the production chain, that viruses can only go in through such errors (or the user themselves), that would be a huge step forward.
I know the market doesn't work that way. It's more efficient at capturing attention than it is at educating people (which is probably why the best school systems tend to be public). If the people were properly educated, many shady practices would simply not have flown. Malware would be much less of a problem.
> Non-tech-savvyness ought to be wiped off the surface of this planet.
Oh I agree, although I wouldn't formulate it this way. An ecosystem like Apple's still has a place in an ideal tech-savvy world because it takes away a lot of micromanagement here and there.
Back in my Android days I constantly had to micromanage and adjust everything to work the way I want it to. Widgets, changing Google app landscape, flashing some custom Cyanogenmod because the manufacturers Frankenstein Android flavor was a hot mess, reign in unwanted background processes, etc etc. Much has gotten a lot better since then on Android but I made the switch before that.
On Apple's system I get to decide less but I also get to worry less as long as I am ok with their decisions. It just feels convenient and barely anything ever gets in my way. I enjoy the mostly seamless integration of iOS and macOS.
If I wouldn't be ok then I thankfully have the OPTION to go back to Android. That's what we should be happy about, right? You can use Google products, I can use Apple products. And if we discover some issue with our choices we can always change them.
> If the people were properly educated
I often feel like many people have no interest in being educated and that is what feels truly frustrating. Anecdotally, I have setup Netflix for relatives and they had zero interest in how it was done. Actively rejected my attempts to show them the setup steps - they just want to be able to press the Netflix button on the remote and have it play something.
Since then, I had to fix simple login issues once or twice again because that step is too techy/nerdy/boring. Of course passwords were never remembered/noted/securely stored...
That's a pretty loaded statement Using android is no more risky than any other platform with a minimum of common sense.
Being stupid-proof is only a feature for stupid people.
Besides, long-term security updates on Apple "planned-obsolescence" Inc products dosen't seem like the most useful of things.
The loaded question into the ad hominem, classy. But if you think you need a doctorate in CS to not install shady apps from unknown sources its your prerogative.
It's an alternative but not without flaws either -- which just measns a trade offf -- the Play store suffers problems that the App Store doesn't. e.g. Apps that are simply removed without explanation and a huge spam problem -- malicious apps have gotten to the top of the Play Store.
What we need is more compitition -- this duopoly is too polaraizing and binary for something as complex as modern mobile phones.
Has anyone complied a list of security vulnerabilities for iOS vs Android over the years? To my eye, it looks like I see articles about android vulnerabilities much more often (and searching for “android security vulnerability exposes” vs “iPhone (or iOS) security vulnerability exposes” seems to back that up.
I would counter most IOS vulns generalize across more devices, as iphones are a reletive monoculture compared to the huge array of android devices. So even ignoring popularity differences, numbers alone will not tell much about which is more secure for the end user. Some type of apples to aplles comparison, would indeed be interesting.
You can search the CVE database, but it will give you a lot of vulnerabilities that were detected in apps on the platforms, and not only the platform itself.
