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Comment by t1234s | Hacker News Reader

How many people in this thread would dump their Android for an iPhone if they: - allowed real 3rd party browser engines - let you uninstall all the apple bloatware apps

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If you added "Allowing manual sideloading of apps" to that list I would jump to an iPhone in a heartbeat

There's TrollStore, but that's a hack not an official way.

https://ios.cfw.guide/installing-trollstore/

TrollStore isn't supported on iOS versions past 17, so if you want to use an OS released in the past three years (and still receiving security updates) it isn't an option.

yes, having an ADB type of CLI tool is a must.

Ditto

Due to App Store $99 per year compared to PlayStore one-time $25 and iPhone being unaffordable for most people in my country, there's too many niche and/or local apps I'm using in Android where they won't port to iOS.

Absolutely not.

Even if they did all of that and also allowed unrestricted sideloading, iOS is still awful overall, and iPhones themselves are terrible value. Even 16e and 17e start at €600/800. I can get a better android phone for €300, and I can't imagine spending more than €500 on a phone, let alone €1000 to get a basic feature like 120Hz refresh rate.

The issue is that software vendors, esp the size and scale that produce browsers, have shown repeatedly that they are terrible for the consumer. All of a sudden, you get the largest attack surface, large instability, and giving them access to the same hardware/OS access is just downright dangerous.

It is so tiring to keep hearing of this whole sideloading/let us run other engines nonsense for a decade+ now. It's like watching all the nastiness that tech companies do and then asking for all that trash on iOS. This is tantamount to wanting Adobe Flash on iOS, and quite honestly, that's exactly what allowing 3rd party browser engines is going to do. First it maybe some extension, and then all of a sudden you find that the extension has full access to photos, location, and contacts because you granted 1 website access to those things.

No thanks.

I would. I wish I had true choice in phone manufacturers. With the EU ruling and the Epic games court cases, I had hope that apple would be forced to open up in the US as well. I was planning my next device purchase decision around this.

I am not interested in jailbreaking or rooting my device to run my apps. I am not interested in the testflight process. I am an adult and can pick and choose what apps I want. And I would like to exercise the whole "voting with my wallet" thing when a company makes an anti-consumer decision.

Judging by outcomes, the EU legislation -- the DMA -- is intended to make life harder for successful US companies rather than to make life better for consumers. They need to scrap it and start over. It can't be used as a model elsewhere -- it just gets in the way.

Not me, because Apple still disallows direct competition with their other 'apps/features' like Compass.

let you uninstall all the apple bloatware apps

Which Apple apps can't be removed?

I’ll dump my iPhone for an Android as soon as:

- iMessage works so I can participate in the family group chat

Awesome, welcome to iPhone. You literally can do that today because the current versions of iOS have added support for RCS.

I looked up RCS, thanks! Correct me if I’m wrong but does it mean that if my kid turns it on, her texts will appear green, not blue, to her iMessage’d friends?

RCS exists

Nope, you'll have to pry my headphone jack and IR blaster out of my cold dead hands.

> let you uninstall all the apple bloatware apps

Which apps can't be uninstalled on the latest iOS?

Siri

Very few

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