This quote is not from Apple, but, however it includes one of the reasons why I switched to Apple in the "golden" days of Microsoft. Yes, you can argue that privacy was not a big concern in those years, but when you moved from Microsoft to Apple, it was a big step in the direction of being in control of your computer: with Microsoft, by using your computer you felt like if you were working for Microsoft rather than for yourself; with the Mac, you were actually working for yourself. In other words: with Microsoft, you had to respect Microsoft. With Apple, it's Apple who respected you and your work.
The quote is from
https://puri.sm . Of course you can take your crystal ball (together with your love for Apple telling you what you have to do --and trusting they'll be good boys with your private data you're making available to them everyday)... and with your crystal ball + Apple-servant-joy, you can laugh at Purism saying how they will fail, that other people tried before and failed, and that Linux has no apps, blah, blah, blah,... and you can laugh in the way you wish, but there's one thing you can't silence: The group of people who is fed up with devices that tell them what, when and how to do things, is bigger and bigger with the time, at least as big as to crowdfund two laptops and a $2M amount for a phone.
In my first post in the thread (which you called a joke, childish, from a newbie, hyperbolic, blah, blah, blah), I said that
enough is enough. It wasn't a matter of a quick shout done in a bad day, but a progressive change in Apple's attitude, that I cannot tolerate as a customer.
Losing iOS 10 is not bad enough for saying enough is enough (iOS 10 is worse than older iOS versions). What really made me affirm that Apple is no longer on my side but against me, is that Apple decided that I had to answer a nagging screen twice a week, and that I could only choose two options: keep answering that nagging screen forever twice a week,
for all the weeks in the rest of my life. Or accept to update. I had chosen the former, but I was in the subway, and in a hurry of opening an app, so in the middle of the hurry I pressed the wrong button (and please, don't tell me about the watchTV profile: that's an unsupported hack that Apple can disable when they want; the same goes for deleting the update: it continues to be downloaded again, forever and ever).
I could look for workarounds (selling the iPhone, etc...), but... I see this event as the clear confirmation that, from now on, Apple is not going to be on my side anymore, but telling me what to do, when, exactly how to do it,
and nagging if I'm not willing to obey. Not only that, but also they'll continue pushing me to upload my files and my data to their servers (iCloud, or whatever comes next).
- Should I trust how they'll use my data when they don't even respect my choice of not updating as a permanent and final decision taking on my own?
- Should I trust how they'll use my data when they don't even ask for a confirmation for an OS update that is going to make your phone non-operational for 20 minutes? (I had to call my family, not urgent, but I had to delay my family call for 20 minutes just because Apple managed to fool me this time)
- Should I trust how they'll use my data when they are always trying to push me in the direction they want?
It's clear I could sell the iPhone and get an iOS 10 (or older) one, but that's not going to change the root of these questionable (to say the least) practices from Apple. I cannot tolerate these practices, so
enough is enough.
And, those of you suggesting Android... you are indeed joking, aren't you?
If you ask me what will be my next OS and my next mobile devices, I cannot answer at this time, because, as you said, the main options in mobile are either iOS or Android, and I'm very used to the power of MacOS. If Purism succeeds, it could very well be my future brand. Their motto (the beginning quote at the top of this message) defines exactly how I want my devices to be nowadays. If they don't succeed, I'll keep looking, because if there's interest enough of raising $2M for a phone, there must be alternatives sooner or later.
