from Hacker News

Apple just lost its lawsuit trying to ban iOS virtual machines

by mulle_nat on 5/9/23, 9:14 PM with 328 comments

  • by okamiueru on 5/10/23, 7:55 AM

    What I want to do is not have to have a unified build system for multiple platforms and ABIs without any problem, but for some reason, to target anything apple, I have to use a physical apple machine.

    It's absolutely abusing market position, because it ends up being that in my profession, you end up purchasing mac computers for the whole office, because then you can target all platforms without any fuss. Not because the hardware or software has any merits, but because they artificially restrict these use cases so that's the only option to target a significant market.

  • by crazygringo on 5/10/23, 1:12 AM

    Can someone remind me why Apple is so anti-VM in seemingly every instance?

    It just seems so arbitrary and unhelpful, and I have a hard time imagining that the amount of hardware purchased it forces outweigh the benefits from making macOS/iOS better platforms for development and computation.

    It just seems like such an odd stance to take.

  • by ftyhbhyjnjk on 5/10/23, 5:08 AM

    Good good. Apple has been abusing their dominant position for far too long. If it's my hardware, I'll do whatever tf I want. Apple can't do shit.

  • by phire on 5/10/23, 2:29 AM

    Before anyone jumps to conclusions, all this ruling means is that this example of an iOS virtual machine (for the purpose of security research) counts as fair use.

    It doesn't exactly open the doors for everyone to run iOS in virtual machines.

  • by Robotbeat on 5/10/23, 12:43 AM

    Now I'd like to be able to legally run MacOS on a virtual machine or on AWS or Azure or Google Cloud or something. I know you can rent a bare metal Apple Mini or something, but Apple's terms of service make this all basically illegal to use like any other VM.

    That means if I want to develop an app for iOS (beyond just what you can do in Swift Playgrounds), I can't just boot up a VM or AWS instance, I have to either buy an actual Mac Mini (cheapest option) or rent one.

  • by jamesy0ung on 5/10/23, 12:56 AM

    I'd love to make use of the power of the M2 chip in my ipad and run VM's on it. Shame apple won't let us.

  • by TobyTheDog123 on 5/9/23, 11:23 PM

    It's funny how the 30% tax and App Store nonsense automatically makes me want Apple to lose every single court case in perpetuity.

    Having such a monopoly on a device you purchase really means the legal system needs to take you down a notch.

  • by gregsadetsky on 5/9/23, 10:25 PM

  • by WirelessGigabit on 5/9/23, 10:14 PM

    I thought they dropped the suit 2 years ago... https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/08/11/apple-settles-law...

  • by qwerty456127 on 5/10/23, 7:17 AM

    Geat news! What about iOS-hosted virtual machines? I managed to install DosBox on one device in our family just before they blocked it but I want it, also a Linux VM and a real Firefox everywhere.

  • by uf00lme on 5/10/23, 6:02 PM

    I don't see how Apple doesn't have a few hardware and software combo card to play here that make it impossible more effort than it is worth to try to emulate.

  • by lisbon44 on 5/10/23, 6:39 AM

    unexpected outcome for justifying fair-use with modern technology at stake, any progress defanging the D.M.C.A as of recent?

  • by fennecfoxy on 5/11/23, 3:13 PM

    No wonder Apple make so much god-damned money.

  • by omgomgomgomg on 5/9/23, 10:49 PM

    Parallel or something like that lets you run windows on mac os.

    I think thats a fair decision, always found macs looking nice, but dislike many of the apps. Windows and ms suite on mac is on my bucket list now.