This morning, Kev posted about the uneasiness he had about going all in the Apple ecosystem, and how he has moved out of it.
These posts are all over the web. And they do have some real points. But as someone that’s all in Apple ecosystem, I’m more on the other side of the coin.
How I Got Here
Way back in 2016, I picked up a 13" retina MacBookPro. I was pretty tired of windows, and needed software support for school (that Linux couldn’t provide). A Mac fit that perfectly (I also wanted to switch to MacOS). A few months later, I made the switch to the iPhone (1st gen SE). After that, I went down the rabbit hole, Apple Watch, multiple Apple TVs, iCloud+, etc.
With how well their products work together, yeah, it’s nice. It’s a nice eco system. But, I did have a time where I wanted out, and started working towards it.
Photo Sanning
Let’s set this straight, CSAM is bad. And needs to be stopped. But, there are lines we can’t cross.
The Dark Knight. A truly wonderful movie. There is one scene that sums this all up perfectly. When Batman has turned every phone in the city in to a sonar scanner, all to find the Joker. Everyone wanted the Joker stopped. But this was seen as a step too far, to quote Fox.
This is wrong.
Apple crossed that line. When they were going to roll out client side scanning. A way for them to scan peoples photos, with out them knowing what your photos are, unless they matched what they were looking for.
Beautiful, unethical, dangerous.
At this point, I was out. I ordered a new laptop, put Linux on it, and wasn’t going back, until this system was dead.
The Move
Everyone said that moving away from Apple would be hard. But it really wasn’t. Ok, I was only changing my laptop, and still weighing my options for my phone. But it was pretty easy.
I came to the conclusion pretty quickly, that Linux isn’t ready for full general desktop use. I had never made the full move, with out a back up OS. And it was not all that fun.
Don’t get me wrong, I known Linux. I used to teach it at a state University, and I run a Linux VM cluster. For servers, it’s fantastic. But, I was missing MacOS. I needed a OS that I didn’t have to tinker with, one that just worked.
After a while, Apple announced that the client side scanning system was dead. And they made moves in the opposite direction. Giving user the option for full E2EE iCloud.
Today
Today, I’m all in. But, not without backups. Think of it like this. I’m at a party, I’m liking it, I don’t want to leave. But, I know where all the exits are.
Sure, I use iCloud, for almost everything. Offsite file sync, message backups, email (with a custom domain), notes, contacts, photos is where I use multiple solutions.
Photos are very important. And all the photos I take on my phone are on iCloud. But the photos I’ve taken on my camera, are on both iCloud, and my NAS (all 120+GB). This is the digital age. The same egg can be in more than one basket.
I like Apple. I get excited for WWDC and the September event. I like seeing what they cook (get it) up. I enjoy their products. But, as I have before, I will, and can, leave at the drop of a hat. And those telling me switching away will be hard. Switching from years on Android to iOS, was hard.
I want to be very clear here. If you like Android, or Desktop Linux. Don’t let this post put you off. There are two sides of every coin.