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If PCs were like smartphones

Princess AlicePrincess Alice
edited 2014-11-16 17:08:50 in General
Your only option to buy a new PC is to get one locked to a specific internet provider or to pay a disproportionately higher price for an "unlocked" version you found online.

That useless bloatware that came preloaded on your PC? Can't uninstall it without superuser access.

Wanna install programs that haven't been approved by your PC manufacturer and sold through their store? Can't do it without superuser access.

Want superuser access to your own PC? That will likely require relying on security flaws in your operating system. Also, it voids your warranty, even for totally unrelated hardware issues.

Wanna say "fuck it", wipe your hard drive, and install an operating system of your choosing? That also voids your warranty!

Basically, what I'm saying is I don't understand why people put up with this bullshit for mobile phones when they'd never tolerate it with other products.
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Comments

  • Yarrun XIXYarrun XIX
    Whores! we want "poems that kill."
    Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
    guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
    and take their weapons leaving them dead
    iPhone users are used to having their products limited by corporate mandate.

    Not sure about Android
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Also, you're at the mercy of your PC manufacturer and internet provider when it comes to operating system updates. If you've had your PC more than a year and a half, you're out of luck, because they want you to buy a new one if you want new software.
  • HavenHaven
    Let me tell you. About Fallen London.
    Now I'm mostly just surprised this isn't standard practice for PCs. (yet)
  • FossilmaidenFossilmaiden
    edited 2014-11-16 17:29:09
    image Wee yea erra chs hymmnos mea.
    Haven said:

    Now I'm mostly just surprised this isn't standard practice for PCs. (yet)

    Well, it's hard to do when even a complete novice can just take the hardware apart.
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Yeah, I wouldn't tolerate this BS on PCs. Thankfully, no one has completely locked them down yet!
  • KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
    kill living beings
    Fossilmaiden said:

    Haven said:

    Now I'm mostly just surprised this isn't standard practice for PCs. (yet)

    Well, it's hard to do when even a complete novice can just take the hardware apart.
    yet again, the day is saved, by microsoft ibm pcs
  • AlirozAliroz
    ...And even when your hope is gone
    move along, move along, just to make it through
    (2015 self)
    It's because computers are essential for many kinds of work, while IPhones are for texting, watching videos, playing phone games, and other such activities.

    An IPhone is considered a phone as much as it is considered a computer. How much can you alter your phone without voiding the warranty?
  • KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
    kill living beings
    well back in the 1950s you couldn't alter your phone at all because it was a property of the telephone company. maybe the lesson here is just that fuck phones.
  • One-Winged EagleOne-Winged Eagle
    Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    I really want one of those lego brick phones.
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    You couldn't have your own phone at all until the Carterfone decision in 1968 said that AT&T couldn't stop you. (Later on, the FCC created Part 68 to make sure phones wouldn't damage the network.)
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