this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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The thing is, you can install software from whatever source you like on your Mac. That's not true of your iPhone - even in the EU and Japan where they've been forced to open up a little, apps can only be installed with Apple's permission.
Macs were completely open in that regard until recently. You could install apps from wherever you want. Now, Mac apps have to be notarized by Apple or installing them requires use of the command line. That's obnoxious, but the user still has the final say, unlike the iPhone.
I love my Mac. I can install all kinds of cool software, as my Mac has been upgraded to only run Linux Mint.😉
"You can't install whatever software you want" is a good argument, but I haven't found anything I want to install on my iPhone that I can't. At one point it was emulators, but Apple overturned that a few years ago. I have an emulator on my iPhone, and it's one of the best (Delta; if you say RetroArch is better, I don't disagree, but I could get that, too). But I almost never play it. That's entirely my choice. My use case scenario doesn't need me installing any apps that aren't in the App Store.
Not that I don't have a problem with the App Store. It's mostly trash. They don't highlight good apps, they highlight profitable apps, which means subscriptions. App Store is virtually 100% trash, and its recommendations are 100% trash.
So you have found something you wanted to install on your iPhone that you couldn't, but Apple has decided to allow it for now. I think it's pretty obvious how this is a problem.
Of course you're not going to find apps that exist that you can't install because Apple says so. People won't bother making them if they can only be distributed to the tiny handful of users with jailbroken devices. Of course it comes up on occasion when Apple withdraws permission, with ICEBlock being the recent socially important case.