And it just... sucks. So many avenues for exploitations for average developers that I'd never trust and install a 3rd party app on such a device that I carry around with me every day. Sure, Apple model is far far from perfect but the only solution I can think of for such a personal device.
> I'd never trust and install a 3rd party app on such a device that I carry around with me every day.
I don't run any third party apps either. But I like that I am welcome to do so. In the past I have installed apps from third party developers that I trust and am the better for it.
I want to install apps though (and I actually do). Just those that makes economic sense for developers so that they won't want to resort to scams and even if they decided to, they wouldn't be able to. Apple's ecosystem provides that. I do run 3rd party apps on my Apple mobile devices and accept that there are reasonable vetting procedures at the human and OS level to protect my privacy and protect my device from malware. Android model unfortunately does not provide that, that's why I wouldn't install such apps in such a device.
Hard disagree. First thing I do on any new android phone is install a third party app: f-droid. the play store is impossible to navigate because it's flooded with ad-laden crap and overly permission-greedy dodgy apps. f-droid (for those who aren't familiar, it's an app store for open source applications) is an excellent way to get away from that and get apps that are basically guaranteed not to be user-hostile.
not to mention that app stores impose censorship on the sites that offer apps there. if you're an art platform you aren't allowed to show anything that even just vaguely hints at nudity (and I'm not talking about just outright porn here)
I don't think we are on the same page. My point is Google Play is the best the platform has to offer, and it sucks. It still does some vetting and cares somewhat about platform's security but it is nowhere near enough. Otherwise, I actually do want to install useful apps developed by companies that won't have to resort to snooping and ads to be sustainable - and worst case is reasonably depended by the more strict Apple vetting on the platform and OS protections. So I want those apps and be reasonably secure. I want those useful apps to exist, with an ecosystem about it. Apple provides that, is my point.
Thanks for clearing that up, I see where you are coming from. I think the place you and I will disagree is this:
> Apple provides that, is my point.
Apple, imo, provides a dog and pony show - just as Google does now with their human reviews of Android apps. The app review systems are security theater. The real security is in the APIs and the OS, and I think Android and iOS are on par with one another there.
This only works if you never interact with anyone ever. A lot of your security depends on people in your network not installing random crap and the past 25 years of computers have shown that it is sufficiently easy to social-engineer people into downloading and installing random crap.
