>Apple locks their ecosystem so nobody else can make a smooth seamless experience
KDE Connect and GS Connect do virtually the same things between Linux and Android, and sometimes even more than what Apple can do[1], and is proof that you don't need vendor lock-in and a 3 trillion $ valuation to achieve the same features, just a group of dedicated enthusiasts with a vision and free time on their hands. That's the beauty of FOSS.
Unfortunately, the Apple apologetics brigade will shout loudly that vendor lock in is the key to Apple delivering these features and that openness is somehow bad as it will only hurt the ecosystem and get you hacked.
Not hating on Apple or Apple users, just stating my POV.
It's entirely possible that a closed ecosystem enables a large number of features with a certain set of tradeoffs, and an open ecosystem enables a large number of features with a different set of tradeoffs, and there is overlap between the feature sets.
Does that mean that there is no need for an open ecosystem, when you can get what you need from a closed ecosystem? No, because while all the features you care about may be in both, the tradeoffs you have to make to use the closed ecosystem might not be the tradeoffs you want to make.
And the converse is equally plausible: That you can get all the features you care about in both, but it does not mean that there is no need for a closed ecosystem, because while all the features someone cares about may be available in both, the tradeoffs they want to make may align more closely with the closed ecosystem's tradeoffs than with teh open ecosystem's tradeoffs.
I think it is true that given some set of features, we can nearly always find a set of open source products/packages to deliver the required functionality, and for a very pedantic literal sense of "need, " OSS does everything people need.
But hardware and software products are more than just a set of features. They're the other tradeoffs that form a messy collection of affordances and pain points, and different people have different needs from the entire product's perspective.
KDE connect does what the Remote Hippo app did a decade ago, from what I’m seeing of it’s documentation - let’s you use your phone as a trackpad and maybe share files and such. Yes, it’s more advanced, but it’s not a rethinking of things.
This feature is indeed innovative yet iterative - it’s like a zero-configuration Synergy or Logitech Flow where you can use the same mouse on multiple devices - but it requires basically no configuration at all to do so. And the impressive part is how it built on top of previous work to add shared clipboard between devices and other “handoff” features, plus has a similarity to features that shipped before handoff such as airdrop.
To underscore how impressive it is, Microsoft still has yet to ship a suite of such features and they should have very similar resources available. Apple might be all marketing and sometimes buggy, confusing or unexpected, but there is an undeniable sense of progression when you look at the 5-10 year improvements.
The caution I would have is that it works so well I was confused when my mouse cursor disappeared and showed up on another screen. And it can’t automatically figure out the positioning of displays or computers, which is annoying now that Apple is experimenting with chips that can precisely position devices relative to each other. [Full disclosure, I have a couple shares in Apple.]
>KDE connect does what the Remote Hippo app did a decade ago, from what I’m seeing of it’s documentation - let’s you use your phone as a trackpad and maybe share files and such. Yes, it’s more advanced, but it’s not a rethinking of things.
It does way more than that:
It will pause your PC music/movie when you get a call.
It lets you sync clipboards.
Syncs notifications, SMS, etc and can even reply to SMS from your PC.
Remote view of photos and files on your phone from the PC.
Take phone call on your PC.
And I might be missing a couple.
But, yes, the fact that Microsoft hasn't delivered such features on Windows is baffling. They did try with the Your Phone app, but that's worse than KDE connect.
SMS sync and taking calls from the computer have been a feature in the apple ecosystem since at least 2017.
I agree with the other commenters - it's nice, but it's not nearly the same. The beauty of it is really that 'it just works' - you don't need to know about it, you don't need to open a specific app, find something by name and press 'connect', there are no options. The behaviour just slots in perfectly between the existing model of icloud / sharing / handoff. This kind of long-term design vision is difficult to achieve and very rare in FOSS, maybe with the exception of Elementary.
>There is no Android and PC that I can buy where KDE connect is just installed and works. That's the difference.
Sure, but now we're moving the goal posts and arguing about semantics. The original comment I replied to, said Apple features are only achievable due to their ecosystem and I disproved him, that's it. The fact that the Linux community doesn't have billions of $ for marketing and commercialization of their products is a separate issue that's been the thorn of Linux adoption on the desktop since forever.
>I buy a new iPad and MacBook, log in with my iCloud account, and boom, it works.
Unfortunately, some people in the world that don't earn western wages can't afford to own several Apple products worth multiple times their salaries to enjoy the ecosystem, so it's great that FOSS alternatives exist that do the same things so those less fortunate can enjoy them at a fraction of the cost.
When I was a young and broke student I had more time to tinker with old computers and free (and pirated) software and get things fun things working. I also hated on Apple.
Now that I have a comfortable middle class western lifestyle I can appreciate the appliance nature of Apple’s products. I use them for work because they are reliable and do indeed just work.
In the lab I can still tinker with computers but I try to leave that to my students so they can have the same wonderful experience I had.
I haven’t build a PC in a few years and hope to build something new in a couple of years. It’s not a monoculture just because I prefer Macs for getting work done and I’m not going to apologise for my situation. Apple know their users and I’m happy that they can meet most of my needs.
I'm in a similar situation...Whats worse is when you compare the Best of Apple with the best of the PC side of things. My work Dell precision is a science workstation desktop replacement...2 hours of battery life I can understand, fuel efficiency wasn't anywhere in the top ten list of priorities.
But it has ZERO sleep modes. There are 4 exposed to the OS in most cases, non are supported by the BIOS...the only thing I can reasonably do is 'hibernate with lid close.'
The mac is half the price, half the weight, twice the CPU...I'm a little disappointed in Dell and sad that my office requires it use.
But in the context of this thread, I really need a dose of humility and a recognition of what I have due to my geography.
No one but apple has access to the apple ecosystem like apple.
In a windows/linux/notApple ecosystem, you've got to give permission to an application to fully control other devices...that's...not a good idea, from a security standpoint. It's how Bonzi Buddy gets a really crappy hold of your information. But apple has spent a lot of time building a reputation where they can be trusted to do so()
>n a windows/linux/notApple ecosystem, you've got to give permission to an application to fully control other devices...that's...not a good idea, from a security standpoint.
Apple should provide safe defaults - but ultimately the user should be making that decision. Its entirely possible to do this safely, Apple simply chooses not to and pretends its something to do with security.
> But apple has spent a lot of time building a reputation where they can be trusted to do so()
Regardless of whatever "reputation" they've built, Apple products are riddled with bugs and security problems. As a technical user, I never think "security" when I think Apple. I guess for most people security is something that is easily marketed.
KDE Connect and GS Connect do virtually the same things between Linux and Android, and sometimes even more than what Apple can do[1], and is proof that you don't need vendor lock-in and a 3 trillion $ valuation to achieve the same features, just a group of dedicated enthusiasts with a vision and free time on their hands. That's the beauty of FOSS.
Unfortunately, the Apple apologetics brigade will shout loudly that vendor lock in is the key to Apple delivering these features and that openness is somehow bad as it will only hurt the ecosystem and get you hacked.
Not hating on Apple or Apple users, just stating my POV.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Uwh0hAhW8