Unfortunately the way he describes the "Ulysses Pact" is fantasy. He makes it sound like it would be just like today, except a savvy user could sideload Signal for example if Apple was compelled to remove it. What would _actually_ happen is a long list of companies would say "brilliant, we don't have to conform to the app store guidelines any more" and go sideload-exclusive. Within a matter of months it would be common for users to have both official and unofficial app stores, sowing widespread confusion, and UX would go to pot while apps run in the background, chew up battery and take advantage of undocumented/buggy APIs to track users or steal data.
The warlord analogy is a good one. It's a tough nut to crack. The only defensive mechanism that's actionable for the average user is to keep as much data as possible offline. Sure, if Apple wants to they can ship code that exfiltrates data off my external USB hard drive, but that's way beyond the threat model we're discussing today.
"What would _actually_ happen is a long list of companies would say "brilliant, we don't have to conform to the app store guidelines any more" and go sideload-exclusive"
This hasn't happened in Android, why do you think it would happen with Apple?
It hasn't happened on the Mac app store either. If anything it's put pressure on Apple to make the Mac app store a better experience for developers and users. It's only where users have no option as on iOS that Apple has been able to really abuse its power.
So what you're saying is you are willing sacrifice personal privacy and security so that technically illiterate people can have a good user experience?
I understand that from Apple's perspective, but I, personally, couldn't care less about the battery life on someone else's phone. I feel like the market would sort it out, probably with optional walled gardens. That's better, no?
> So what you're saying is you are willing sacrifice personal privacy and security so that technically illiterate people can have a good user experience?
Well, yes. Who is this for if not the tech-illiterate? I’ll be fine. I can use PGP and Tor if I want to.
I dunno, Android has sideload capabilities forever - all you need to do is to go to setting and check the checkbox. But still, most people only use the google's store.
Even Chromebooks, which are super locked down by design, has "developer mode". It needs to be activated via obscure process, and when active it shows up a warning screen on every boot, but it is still there.
The warlord analogy is a good one. It's a tough nut to crack. The only defensive mechanism that's actionable for the average user is to keep as much data as possible offline. Sure, if Apple wants to they can ship code that exfiltrates data off my external USB hard drive, but that's way beyond the threat model we're discussing today.