I'm glad to confirm your suspicion. I like to have both a walled-garden phone and several open-platform computers. They do two completely different things for me.

To be honest, I'd like my open computers to be even more open and hackable, with a secure boot path that doesn't involve any mysterious unpatchable embedded firmware or auxiliary CPUs, but we are slowly getting there with RISC V.

Earlier today on the thread about the google play store apocalypse I posted a comment saying that I like some things about life in Apple's walled garden. But I still upvoted the parent comment because it's true and it's funny.

Also I'd happily jailbreak my iPhone and put an alternative OS on it to extend its lifespan. I'm a living human with nuanced opinions and I'm allowed to like more than one thing.

The meaning of Hacker here is VC Startup Founder

I can root my Android phone and have in the past, but I have absolutely no desire to do so now because it adds almost no functionality in exchange for a very large security risk. I consider rooting my phone in the past quite a foolish move by someone who didn't know better.

I converted to an iphone 13 mini (from the S24 Ultra) after being on Android since the release of the HTC Desire in 2010. I used to install custom roms and tweak everything on all of my Android phones which actually lead me to the iphone because I realized I wanted a phone without all the OE clutter and Google crap. The only clutter on the iphone is icloud which stays out of the way and doesn't annoy me with subscription messages. Also I don't have time to fuck around with modifying my phone. I just want everything to work without user intervention.

Having control over one's device and allowing anything and everything to have free reign on said device are two different things.

I'd love to have more control and customizability that the user can initiate, but random executables shouldn't be able to so much as sneeze without my permission. Third party software (yes, even the FLOSS variety due to issues such as supply chain compromises) must be treated as adversarial by default, anything less is foolishness.

I like jailbreaks.

But to jailbreak you need to stay on an older iOS version (because Apple patches the bugs enabling the jailbreaks). And that means you don't get security updates.

I’m fine with a locked down iPhone. All of my financial account credentials are on there, personal photographs, etc. Since I’ve owned an iPhone, I’ve never had a non-working phone. Security and reliability are the two most important items to me when it comes to a phone.

If I want to run arbitrary software, I have a computer. I am unsure why you care if I want a locked down reliable phone.

> people saying they buy iPhones specifically because of the walled garden and the last thing they want is a jail broken device.

I’m not one of those people.

> On a website called Hacker News.

But I still find that unfair. Being a hacker doesn’t mean you want to hack every aspect of your life. I’m perfectly content hacking away on a computer, but I have no desire to hack my toaster and risk burning down my house.

These are the same people that caused this situation. A close platform is only closed until it's busted right open and then everyone is screwed because there were no eyes on it the entire time.

It’s reasonable to like to hack things, but to want a phone that just works.