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I’ve been aware of Cory’s argument since he first began writing about it. It still hasn’t come to pass. I can still run a C compiler on my Mac and write whatever software I want to write. I can still install any other compiler or interpreter I like and write whatever code I want for it. I can still install any open source software I want.

Cory’s arguments ultimately boil down to a slippery slope argument. Apple says it is locking things down in order to protect people against malware. Cory says this will lead to a lockdown against general purpose computing (ability to run any software you want). This hasn’t yet come to pass, so it’s a matter of waiting at this point.

I don’t think climate change is an appropriate analogy. Climate change is a physical process which we can model and predict via the scientific method. It’s pretty clear at this point that if we maintain the status quo and don’t change our behaviour then catastrophe will ensue.

You can’t say the same thing about Apple. They’re a company full of people and you can’t predict what they’re going to do next. Plenty of people try, of course, but they’re wrong every year.




> I can still install any open source software I want.

Not without disabling SIP.

Also, I doubt you'd be able to install alternative OSes on an M1 Mac.


I have been using tons of open source software on my Mac since 2017 without ever disabling SIP. The only thing I’ve ever had trouble with was gdb and I was able to address that by self-signing the binary. Having said that, gdb has other issues on Mac but I think they may have a shortage of actual Mac developers.

M1 Macs don’t boot any OS not signed by Apple but they did demonstrate Linux running under virtualization. The fact that they included this in their demo indicates that the ability to continue running open source software on Macs remains a priority.


> I have been using tons of open source software on my Mac since 2017 without ever disabling SIP.

Homebrew put in some work for this not to be an issue, but SIP was an issue for me back in the day and why I no longer use a Mac.

Additionally, there's an annoying popup every time you want to launch a internet-downloaded binary that doesn't even have an 'Allow' on the box itself. One has to go via Settings => Security and Privacy, which is tedious.

> I was able to address that by self-signing the binary.

For many, that's too much friction to bother.

> M1 Macs don’t boot any OS not signed by Apple but they did demonstrate Linux running under virtualization. The fact that they included this in their demo indicates that the ability to continue running open source software on Macs remains a priority.

Maybe, but virtualization is not the same as bare metal. The only thing this shows to me is that Apple knows server-software will be deployed to Linux servers, so they need to provide some ability to test on Linux, even for their own in-house services I'd imagine.




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