No you don’t. Anyone can install anything they like. That is how AltStore works. The caveat is that the signing certificate is only for a short amount of time. If you really want to, you could perpetually keep software running on your phone by ensuring the IPA was regularly built and updated before the certificate expires.
“just buy a mac, just get an apple account and then just keep this software running periodically” doesn’t have the same ring to it like “you can just install software you want”
Luckily, apples practice is now illegal in the EU, and they will allow sideloading in a while. Probably only in europe though ; )
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I mean - yeah… impossible to do anything useful under iOS.
Totally need a Mac to run self signed software too…
Or without even a recent Mac, because a $100 one is too old, obviously…
Terrible platform, obviously.
Those all need an Apple account, to some extent. So, nephele isn’t entirely incorrect with their criticism. In contrast to Windows, Android, Linux, Haiku, etc. where installing third-party software doesn’t require an account.
While we’re going off-topic already, it’s not possible to installed self-signed iOS apps from Linux; there’s a fork of AltStore for Linux, however it didn’t really work last time I tried months ago.
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Kind of ridicilous that you want to deflect valid critizism with random cloud services that generally require a subscription.
And honestly, you are barking up the wrong tree, I use an iPhone myself but claiming you can install software freely, currently, is just ridicilous.
And yes, to deploy applications from xcode you need a mac. Plain and simple, the TOS for xcode allow you to only run it on macos, and the TOS for macos only allow you to run it pn mac hardware or a vm that is also running on mac hardware.
That some programming enviroments exist is also irrelevant, unless your argument is that you can technically programm applications in it.
Anyhow, this is way too off-topic and I ask for it to be split out, bringing up the UI of the iPhone for disk encryption was related but this is too far out.
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Personally I think passwords to login are fine, provided that they would also unlock and passwordstores or disk encryptipon things.
If you don’t want one it should be perfectly fine, just without disk encryption then.
In any case Haiku should never need to go as far as constantly bugging users for passwords for every damn thing.
Sorry yes off topic… if you want to use any Google Play services it is much the same deal. Android is not free, the AOSP version needs to be “hacked” to allow the mainstream PlayStore to be used. If you side load anything on an Android device past Android 10 you start losing privileges quite quickly. Forget access to your SD card. (Or external storage) for example without jumping through needless hoops. Android is also a mess of support kits whilst this allows support for outdated versions, it breeds lowest common denominator software.
Sign yes, deploy no.
I installed *.apk file on Android phone without problems (just download and install, no extra actions). It is not possible in iOS. Apple ecosystem is terrible in respect of user freedom. They assume that user is stupid and will consume everything as Apple want, paying a lot of money.
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Maybe, but Google are slowly moving towards the same end game. Google’s main issue is AOSP. If you install a ROM you have freedom. If you use stock Android from any major vendor it is tighter. If you use Android from Google it is even tighter. It will keep going in that direction and your phone will get more locked down every generation.
Which is why I am thinking of giving up my smartphone and reverting to a dumbphone. If I need other features, like the internet access, I’ll try to install Haiku on my ancient Asus EEE PC . It’ll be a pain to carry around, but at least I will be free of MS and Google. And that, friends, is why I support Haiku.
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I have an old rooted ASOP phone with no Google spyware installed. I never bring my phone unless I know that I need it. I have incoming calls blocked except from numbers that are in my contact list. It is always on mute, vibrate only. Of the few calls that I get, I miss most of them. It can take weeks until I notice that I have received a text.
My phone is my tool to use when and how it pleases me. It is not my master. I would like to be without a phone, and I might be in the future, but it has some useful functions that a dumb phone lacks.
The same goes for watches. I don’t wear one, or have any in my home. Nature is my timekeeper.
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As an Apple user, I’m certainly not stupid…
One of Apple’s advantages (to some people, me included) is that the tight control over the ecosystem, which means the quality of apps on the Apple Store are generally higher than the wild west-esuqe Google Play store.
Is the Google platform generally more open? Yes, ish, if you don’t mind Google sucking all your data up. That’s both a good and bad thing.
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my main motivation to use an iPhone was to not have to deal with google.
But “ecosystem” is a terrible argument, apple deliberately cuts compatibility to a minimum so getting just an iPad or a mac should be easier than another computer. In my case I’m not interested in buying a macbook because I dislike the keyboard, but apple certaily tries to push me in that direction.
@X512 didn’t say you ARE stupid. He said Apple treats you as if. I think it’s a sort of paternalism (“We know what’s good for you”). Google has that, too. From a SW freedom point of view Apple is terrible (imho even more than Google and Microsoft).
No, I know, but I was saying for the record I’m not stupid even if Apple think I am! Completely agree with your statement - Apple run their world like a child’s playpen at times.
I very much dislike both Android and iOS.
I decided for Android because there’s more hardware to choose from (and I can have one with a physical keyboard 
) and because the Google spyware can be removed pretty good using ADB shell and a few commands that only a few people know.
If I couldn’t remove the Google spyware from it,I guess I’d be still using a dumbphone as that spying and tracking everywhere is simply not acceptable in any way.
Making Android somewhat usable becomes more difficult with every new version,however.
I already had to install a custom SMS app,gallery,file manager,calendar and browser because the default was proprietary Google spyware instead of AOSP apps.
Maybe some day they’ll completely make it non-usable without the Google crap.
As much as I also dislike Micro$oft,it’s really sad that Windows phone had to die,as a third alternative to Google and Apple would have resulted in more choice for the user,and honestly it can’t have been that bad as Android and iOS are…
Windows Phone 7+ was great. It was snappy as iPhone, and the interface was very original and user friendly. Too bad MS killed it.
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When Blackberry killed Blackberry OS (which I really loved btw) and switched to Android,I was seriously considering switching to Windows phone.
But then,when I finally had to replace my good old Blackberry Passport,Micro$oft had already announced to give up on Windows Mobile,too 
I’ve got a Pinephone in preparation for a truly open-source operating system. Open-source Android without Google Apps sounds ok but there’s a lot missing there. Linux Touch is not a panacea either. I tried SculptOS based on Genode but progress is slow.