Why I Do Not Use Apple – Nenad Stoisavljević

A reason to use Apple...

Despite all the hard thinking that I have done, trying to find a reason for someone to use Apple products, I can't for the life of me think of why someone would want to use macOS or any of their Apple products. Not one reason to use an Apple product, that's right you heard it! Apple can be viewed as one of the most successful multinational technology companies out there, and yet I cannot find not one rational reason to use their macOS, or any of their other products which they had put forth in the recent decade. In fact, they are so successful that they don't even need to go on sale during Boxing Day or Black Friday, because people will still continue to buy their devices. For Windows, I can see why someone might want to use it; better support for graphics card, better support for gaming, your job may require you to use one, or you simply have to run proprietary software that is only written for Windows, etc. But when I think of macOS, I cannot think of a single reason. However, please do not think in any way that Windows is somehow superior to Apple, they are both somewhat in the same boat, but Apple is far worse. Let me explain why.

Reasons to not use Apple

Now, I can think of many justifiable reasons to not use macOS, as well as the rest of their products, which is ultimately why I personally do not use any of their products myself. For the record, my first ever device was indeed an Apple product and I have used them for numerous years. The following issues which I am about to address, are all ones in which I have experienced myself and now the time has come to move onto better things.

Obsolete Hardware: If you have ever owned an Apple device, let's take the iPhone for example; when was the last time you had to buy a new one, not because you wanted to, but because you had to? Clearly you can't use the same iPhone for years after you bought it because Apple deliberately makes it so that with every new product, new software arises, which eventually disables you from installing it because of "compatibility issues". Their new software won't run anymore on your old iPhone, and then eventually they stop supporting your phone too by not pushing iOS updates, which poses security threats and now you are left with no other choice than to buy their latest iPhone. Apple plans so that their hardware becomes obsolete after sometime, it is all planned obsolescence. As we have seen before, Apple was even caught slowing down older iPhones in order to force customers to buy their latest products, this is nothing new. Then when you go to the marketplace for a new iPhone to buy, the prices appear to be getting more and more expensive, every time you go to buy their latest product. Apple has become a luxurious brand.
Repairing Apple Devices: If you think what they're doing is bad enough, then try repairing a broken MacBook. Theoretically lets say you have to upgrade the RAM or replace the keyboard on a regular Windows machine, or just a regular computer for that matter; that is no problem. I for instance use a Thinkpad X220 and run Arch Linux on it, I would just have to order the parts off Ebay for $20 or so dollars, then I would have to unscrew a few screws and finally replace the broken parts. That's really all there is to it, but then take a MacBook for example and it's a whole different story. They don't only solder the RAM into the motherboard to make your life more difficult, but they also use specialized screws called a pentalobe security screw. Now, these are not your normal screws that you may be familiar with, like the Phillips head screw or the flat screw. These are special screws that cannot be unscrewed with a regular Phillips screwdriver. This is because Apple purposely make their products hard to modify, they don't want you to be able to replace or upgrade things by yourself. This in effect eliminates a lot of competition in the repair industry for Apple products, whereas the repair industry for Windows machines are much greater. Apple wants to constrain the market for repairing their products, so that you would have to pay more at their stores or some "authorized" Apple repair shops. Ironically Apple sells a $6,000 iMac Pro, and yet they don't even have any replacement parts for it.
The Brand: So why do people have MacBooks then? I don't know about you, but don't all Mac computers look the same. I mean seriously, they all have that same Apple logo on the lid and they are all uniform. Apple wants it that way because it is a brand, that's why you can't install custom themes for example on your iPhone to customize it. I guess some people change their background but that's the most change you will see from a Mac user. You can find regular Windows machines out there from any brand, each one looks different from the one next to it, they all have different components, etc., but when you look at Mac computers; they are identical. There is no competition because it is all one brand, and that is the brand that you are buying into. Effectively this uniform way of distributing their technology has really been going for them, because majority of their users only use their products because it is made by the Apple company. Regardless of what kind of hardware they are selling to their consumers, they are bought into their brand. Ask them anything related to hardware and they won't even be able to tell you what phone they're using, let alone anything related to RAM or a CPU, but they can tell you that it's from Apple. Furthermore, when a Windows machine breaks down, that user will most likely blame the brand from which that computer is coming from and they will most likely say that they will never buy it again. However, if that was a Mac user on the other hand, they would continue to praise the company despite their hardware problems which they even admit to, but this means absolutely nothing for the consumer. Apple has built a loyal user base and that is exactly what their system of profitability is based off of.
Apple Ecosystem: You are now bought into their brand and you decide to buy one of their products, lets say you choose the iPad Pro, so that you can watch movies on it. Of course they now want you to use iTunes to download all the movies and music, which you also have to pay for. Then you legally download your movies and next you find out that they can't be transferred onto any other device, unless it is made by Apple. Same thing for their iCloud storage. Often times people don't actually realize how many pictures and videos they have because those files are automatically backed up on their iCloud storage, which you at the moment only get 5 GB for free of. Only then after do you realize that you have run out, when you are notified to pay an additional fee to upgrade your iCloud storage because it is full of your pictures, videos, etc. This is why iCloud is enabled by default on all Apple products. Apple wants you to use more and more of their products, if you have an iPhone, they also want you to have the MacBook, or their Apple Watch.

As soon as you buy one of their products, they trap you into their ecosystem to get you to buy more of their products, so that they can sync with one another; as we have seen with software such as iCloud and iTunes. Now their latest upgrade to their phones has been the removal of the headphone jack... That means you have to use their special dongle, or their earplugs which only work for their products. You can't even listen to music and charge your phone at the same time anymore. Again another thing which Apple has implemented only for their products. Majority of android phones in the cell phone industry use the 3.5 mm headphone jack, except for Apple. It is a marketing strategy that is constraining the consumers to only using their products. Ideologically they isolate the consumer from the rest of the market by creating this ecosystem, which allows for Apple to increase their profit margins to a minimum of 60% profit on every product. Combine this with their avoided taxes, and that is how they manage to stabilize their growth.
Proprietary Software: As we know, the software which runs on Apple devices are not open-source meaning that we have no idea what software they are actually even running. Apple claims to defend data privacy as a human right, but clearly they are hypocrites about it. Not to mention that even though you pay thousands of dollars for these Apple devices, you have no root access to them, unless you go ahead and jailbreak the device, but that will void the phone's warranty so do it at your own cost. People assume that because macOS is somewhat more secure than Windows, you are automatically safe from hackers and people who want to steal your data. But think about where your data is being stored. More likely than not, you are using their iCloud storage system because your small storage capacity iPhone has run out of space, and now you are forced to switch to their online iCloud storage, which is somewhere in the "cloud". You may or may not already know this, but that data of yours has to be stored physically on a computer somewhere. If it isn't being stored on your iPhone or MacBook, then where is it being stored you may wonder? They are stored in large data centers which either belongs to Google or Amazon, and you don't even know in which one is your data located. Since they aren't open-source, you really have no way of knowing what they are doing with your information.

Sure they could be securing it from other hackers by encrypting the private data into "chunks" and whatnot, but the real question is what are they doing with it? In theory, there is to some degree a possibility that hackers can gain access to their decryption keys, and that would leave the majority of people vulnerable. Apple was caught spying on their users through siri before, and now they have introduced Face ID, which could potentially lead to further spying. On top of that, Google is reportedly paying Apple billions of dollars to route all web searches through Google by default on the Safari browser, which comes pre-installed with every iPhone. This enables Google to extract large amounts of data on Apple's users, as a result they gain huge profits from this.
Alternatives: If all this is going on with Apple, then what should you use? It might seem a little absurd but, the best answer is nothing. The most ideal situation would in fact be, for you to not use any technology and to be completely independent, that is the safest and most secure option that anyone can choose. However, if you must use technology then there are a few solutions to this problem. In theory you want to use only free and open-source software, or libre software is also the equivalent. At all costs be sure to avoid proprietary software! Do not run any proprietary software whatsoever, which means no Windows and definitely no macOS because you can't view the source code of that particular software. GNU/Linux is a great alternative to those operating systems, my preferred distro is Parabola GNU/Linux, which is a variant of Arch Linux but with no proprietary blobs. Also if you are using a Thinkpad X220 like I am, be sure to flash Coreboot with SeaBIOS and that you strip down the Intel ME blobs with me_cleaner. Just in general, avoid using thin laptops which have only came out within the last 5 years or so, and use older models of the Thinkpads because they come with better and more tactile keyboards, unlike the chiclet keyboards nowadays.

As for a cell phone, I'd recommend using either LineageOS or GrapheneOS for the operating system. Just make sure that your phone is compatible with the operating of your choice, or take that into account when you are going to buy a new one. They are both completely free and open-source, LineageOS supports more phones, whereas GrapheneOS is more privacy/security oriented. GrapheneOS doesn't support a lot of devices, currently they only support the Google Pixels because they're ironically very easy to modify. I personally use a Google Pixel 3a with GrapheneOS installed and only free software applications. When you go to download applications, make sure that you use F-Droid, which is an application manager but for only free software programs. Avoid running the stock operating system on android phones because they are bloated with Google software, that is all proprietary and closed-source.