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Comment by frankfrankfrank | Hacker News Reader

I’m not sure what would make you think that Windows is even in the slightest better.

In fact it is proven that not only is Microsoft deeply in bed with the whole US Government, but the amount of vulnerabilities and flaws and outright back doors that have been publicly exposed in Windows is wildly larger.

I don’t even understand this immense focus on criticizing Apple, as valid as it is, when people use Android and Windows and Google services that are all shown as clear hangar door sized vulnerabilities.

It really kind of boggles my mind. Apple is constantly being out under pressure by the government and is constantly pushing increasing security and privacy features, as imperfect as they may be, but that is in comparison to Windows and Android, folks.

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The CSAM thing did irreparable damage to Apple’s reputation. We foolishly trusted them as benevolent dictators of the walled garden. They demonstrated why that can’t work. Everyone is fallible, nobody deserves absolute trust.

They announced their plans, people objected and they listened. I don’t get what the problem is?

People wanted to believe they were incapable of considering or even conceiving of such a thing, so anti-thetical to the narrative they built sparring with some US law enforcement agencies...

And by "listened" you mean "postponed until people forgot", right?

The problem is that Apple considered it at all. They could have easily not listened and then we'd be stuck with no alternative. We know these things happen in secret, the fact they even suggested it publicly means that internally at least part of their leadership thinks it is ok.

Not sure why you think this only extends to Apple: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/photodna

and I'm sure if I searched I could find the same thing for Google, Facebook and others too.

I didn't say it only extends to Apple. They differentiated themselves on privacy. That's a difficult position to hold because you can't ever make a misstep. Apple did, and they can never recover.

I use Linux but have a barebones Windows 10 install for one stupid stressful game that doesn't work on Linux due to anticheat. I audibly groan when rebooting to Windows to play.

With that said I can still use Windows without a Microsoft account.

> With that said I can still use Windows without a Microsoft account.

Only because you are a power-user and know the magic trick to perform when installing Windows to avoid signing in with a Microsoft account.

> With that said I can still use Windows without a Microsoft account.

It sounds like you may not realize that you have never needed an Apple account (i.e. an Apple ID, which might call an "iCloud account") to use macOS. No magic tricks are required, although some Apple services will naturally not be avaiable.

Can you install homebrew without an Apple account? The last time I owned a mac (some years ago) it seemed as though I was required to have an Apple account to download the 'developer tools' required for homebrew to operate.

Can you name/link even one such backdoor?

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