WendyMcElroy.com
The Software PrisonBrad here. Imagine that you're getting ready to buy a lovely little house in a quiet and prosperous town, but before you can close the deal, you must meet with the community elders:
Elder: "We have an...unusual...restrictive covenant that you must agree to. You're not allowed to bring in any books."
You: "What? But I love reading!"
Elder: "Oh, we have books. There's a well-stocked library, with plenty of reading material."
You: "But I can't bring my own books?"
Elder: "No."
You: "Can I purchase books and have them shipped to me?"
Elder: "No."
You: "Can I request that the library obtain books for me?"
Elder: "No. The librarian is in charge of book selection, and she insures that all the books in the library are wholesome and safe."
You: "What if I disagree with her decision?"
Elder: "Her decisions are final, and may not be questioned."
Now, would you move to such a town?
Because that's what you're doing when you buy an iPhone. Or an Android device. You may think you own the device, but you can't run software of your choice on it.* You're limited to only those applications available from the App Store, which have been approved as being wholesome and safe.
And "wholesome" is an elastic category. Gab and Parler apps were deemed not-wholesome. Bitcoin was deemed not-wholesome. The decision is arbitrary, can be changed at any time, and you have no recourse.
That's why I disagree with the article "4 Reasons Why You Don't Need a Laptop Anymore". The author argues that for portability, tablets are a better choice; for productivity, desktops. I might agree with the latter, but tablets are a poor choice, because when you use a tablet you are locking yourself into a world of corporate control and censorship. The comfy "walled garden" of apps has become a software prison.
So when I travel, I carry a laptop computer for email and web access. (Actually a "netbook" with a proper keyboard, that's only a little larger than a tablet with an external keyboard.) And I run open-source Linux where I have the right to install any software I please, and use it for any purpose. At home I run Linux on my desktop computer. It's a bit more work, but it's worth it.
Naturally, I avoid hardware that doesn't allow me to install Linux (some computers with a Trusted Platform Module only allow "approved" operating systems to be installed). Though in fairness to Microsoft, as far as I know** they've never tried to restrict which third-party software you can install on your Windows computer. They're better than Apple in this regard.
If you can't run the software of your choice, and use it for whatever purpose you desire, then you don't own your computer. And your freedom to compute will be severely curtailed some day. So use your iPhone as a phone, and use something else for the Internet.
__________
* I gather it is possible to "sideload" unapproved software on an Android device. But Google does their best to discourage this. Your only option with an iPhone appears to be to "jailbreak" the phone, which risks turning it into a very expensive brick. Update: thanks to Thomas Knapp for these useful links: Sideloading Explained, and Wikipedia's List of Android app stores. (I was unaware that alternative app stores exist.)
** Bear in mind, I haven't used any version of Windows later than Windows XP.
Elder: "We have an...unusual...restrictive covenant that you must agree to. You're not allowed to bring in any books."
You: "What? But I love reading!"
Elder: "Oh, we have books. There's a well-stocked library, with plenty of reading material."
You: "But I can't bring my own books?"
Elder: "No."
You: "Can I purchase books and have them shipped to me?"
Elder: "No."
You: "Can I request that the library obtain books for me?"
Elder: "No. The librarian is in charge of book selection, and she insures that all the books in the library are wholesome and safe."
You: "What if I disagree with her decision?"
Elder: "Her decisions are final, and may not be questioned."
Now, would you move to such a town?
Because that's what you're doing when you buy an iPhone. Or an Android device. You may think you own the device, but you can't run software of your choice on it.* You're limited to only those applications available from the App Store, which have been approved as being wholesome and safe.
And "wholesome" is an elastic category. Gab and Parler apps were deemed not-wholesome. Bitcoin was deemed not-wholesome. The decision is arbitrary, can be changed at any time, and you have no recourse.
That's why I disagree with the article "4 Reasons Why You Don't Need a Laptop Anymore". The author argues that for portability, tablets are a better choice; for productivity, desktops. I might agree with the latter, but tablets are a poor choice, because when you use a tablet you are locking yourself into a world of corporate control and censorship. The comfy "walled garden" of apps has become a software prison.
So when I travel, I carry a laptop computer for email and web access. (Actually a "netbook" with a proper keyboard, that's only a little larger than a tablet with an external keyboard.) And I run open-source Linux where I have the right to install any software I please, and use it for any purpose. At home I run Linux on my desktop computer. It's a bit more work, but it's worth it.
Naturally, I avoid hardware that doesn't allow me to install Linux (some computers with a Trusted Platform Module only allow "approved" operating systems to be installed). Though in fairness to Microsoft, as far as I know** they've never tried to restrict which third-party software you can install on your Windows computer. They're better than Apple in this regard.
If you can't run the software of your choice, and use it for whatever purpose you desire, then you don't own your computer. And your freedom to compute will be severely curtailed some day. So use your iPhone as a phone, and use something else for the Internet.
__________
* I gather it is possible to "sideload" unapproved software on an Android device. But Google does their best to discourage this. Your only option with an iPhone appears to be to "jailbreak" the phone, which risks turning it into a very expensive brick. Update: thanks to Thomas Knapp for these useful links: Sideloading Explained, and Wikipedia's List of Android app stores. (I was unaware that alternative app stores exist.)
** Bear in mind, I haven't used any version of Windows later than Windows XP.
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