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Comment by xg15 | Hacker News Reader

What I don't quite get is why only Apple is getting this treatment here. By that logic, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter/X etc are engaging in exactly the same kind of "tradeoffs", yet the dominant comments on here are usually (rightfully IMO) condemning those decisions while unconditionally defending them for Apple.

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The only company I know of that is "doing it right" is Valve. Keeping themselves private really has paid off for them and has started to better the overall gaming community with their services, I think their cut might be a little high, but you do get a ton of value add as a dev.

Valve aren't so innocent themselves, they introduced the world of gambling to literal children through the marketplace of skins and Valve's tacit approval of 3rd party gambling sites.

I'm honestly surprised they never got raked over the coals by some up and coming State Attorney General, would be an easy win and easy political points.

Ah yes, TF2 Hats, They did start that shit for sure, but there are bigger targets for this issue like Roblox who are /really/ targeting kids

They've keep it going with CS:Go skins as well.

Apple makes a pretty distinct set of tradeoffs relative to the others you mention. Yes there’s growing overlap as they focus more on services, but they do make generally principled decisions around quality and consistency of industrial design, user privacy, device and account security, and strong interoperability within their ecosystem.

I generally align with those tradeoffs and am happy to pay the premium for good design and to rebuff primarily surveillance- or ad-based business models.

Because Apple is primarily a fashion statement/display of wealth. It’s a luxury good first and foremost, and that means a lot a certain part of our brain, and so we unconditionally (sometimes even unconsciously) defend it. Especially amongst those who enjoy tech in California, as in that situation it also becomes a pride point, which is probably a large subset of active HN users.

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