Explain Like I'm Five

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Jailbreaking iPhones: what exactly does it entail? (self.explainlikeimfive)

submitted 1 year ago by thebestaquaman to c/explainlikeimfive

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I remember back in the day when people would "Jailbreak" iPhones, but never really picked up on what they were doing other than that it let them do stuff that those of us with "non-jailbroken" iPhones couldn't do.

Are they just booting another OS, e.g. android? Also: why haven't I heard of it in a while? Is it not possible on newer iPhones?

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[–] nittiyh 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am super scared that they eventually start locking down macOS too. I agree that it makes little sense that they do it for one platform and not the other, and I don’t see them ever backing down on it for the iPhone, so.. hopefully they never feel like making that consistent across OSes.

[–] thebestaquaman 4 points 1 year ago

I can definitely see them leaving macOS alone though. I can't imagine anyone would buy a macbook to use for development if they don't have root access, while, as far as I know, nobody buys iPhones or iPads to develop anything. If they do it would only be for testing purposes, which I assume should be fine without root access, as you're developing for an end-user that doesn't have root access.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I guess it's about the difference audiences. Developers are a decent part of Apple's MacBook customer base and without root access they're not even gonna look in your product's general direction.

[–] d00phy 1 points 1 year ago

I would agree with this. I think the canary in that particular coal mine would be Apple working to kill off Homebrew or Macports. So far, I haven’t seen any indication that this is on the radar.

Fi used to work desktop support, and the “average user” probably has no idea what “root access” even means. I’ve seriously had someone point to my open iTerm window and ask what I was hacking. Always remember what George Carlin said about the average person.

[–] nittiyh 1 points 1 year ago

Absolutely right! But large tech companies have been on a trend of getting a little too greedy and daring, lately. Let’s hope they know better.