I would say you should be free to make the decision to forego the advantages working though a middle man affords you, if you would prefer the savings. That said, there’s consumer protection, quality certification (important for insurance purposes), returns, after sales care and I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff. Nothing to do with differences in the product itself, more so the guarantee of a product that does what it says on the tin.

Battery swelling caused the display to detach or crack, exposing the user to sharp fragments. Buried a couple paragraphs in, behind terms of use. Thought I’d save you a click.

Not who you replied to but Spantaleev’s Ansible script can be fired at a VPS of your choice and Bob’s your uncle.

I agree that alternative app stores are definitely a boon and I can’t wait for the EU to nail Apple to the wall over dragging their feet on that. Competition is good and that 30% fee monopoly is bullshit.

There are iOS terminal clients (I like Termius). The ROM thing, yeah… I installed /e/OS on my Fairphone 4 just for the privacy aspect, but functionally it’s not better or worse than what came in the box. There might be reasons to do it but utility-wise I don’t very well see the point in this day and age.

I hadn’t thought of the developer license requirement to run your own software, I personally don’t do that but I can see it being a deal breaker. Thanks for your thoughts. :)

This is a common argument and it always makes me wonder what people mean by it. No ill intent from my end here, I use and like Apple as well as FOSS, but I can’t think of anything I can do on Android that I can’t on iOS. I admit I’m a very basic user though, I prefer to do heavy lifting on a laptop.

I am genuinely curious. Do you have some examples?