[jayofdoom]

No, it's not similar.

There are two OS platforms for desktop/laptop usage: MacOS Windows

These both contain ways to run arbitrary compiled code from an arbitrary source -- like a computer should. Losing this feature of our smartphones should have everyone concerned.

[bluescrn]

> These both contain ways to run arbitrary compiled code from an arbitrary source

And they're both working towards taking that away.

For now we have Linux as a 3rd option, but that only exists so long as there's hardware available that'll let you run it. Can easily imagine a near-future where you can only get 'Windows hardware' or 'Apple hardware' and nothing modern that'll boot a 3rd-party OS.

[bpye]

Is that really realistic? Apple very specifically allowed booting unsigned, and even non macOS, operating systems on their ARM devices. Sure - they don’t document the hardware, but making it possible was intentional.

[exe34]

do you think arm boards are going away?

[wvenable]

Right. The OP's point was that just having 2 major OSes is the problem but it's clearly not because we had that situation with desktops/laptops and they both allow arbitrary code.