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from the if-you-don't-like-it-you-can-keep-it dept.
Samsung is facing a battle with end users concerning its agreements with software companies to set some preinstalled software on Samsung mobile phones to be undeletable. Users have found that applications like Facebook can't be uninstalled, which has caused some distress given the recent data breaches and lack of respect Facebook has shown towards its users in the past decade. Some users have sworn off getting another Samsung phone if apps can't be uninstalled. The argument that users can just hack the phone to get root access, and then force remove the apps does not hold with non-technical users and anyone who can't risk bricking their device. Samsung has refused to comment on this, and specifically will not provide details about agreements it has with software vendors to force their applications to always be installed on Samsung phones. By comparison, the iPhone does not ever come with pre-installed third party applications.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @12:50AM
Part of the problem with having a discussion of Operating Systems is that Apple ties their system to their hardware, so you cannot have a discussion purely about the OS. Apple has such specific hardware choices, many of which cause a plethora of metoo copycatism that ruin other systems in some people's eyes, that kneejerk reactions are almost guaranteed. People blame Apple and their marketing for the loss of mobile keyboards, removable batteries, headphone jacks, almost all ports, optical media drives, the rise of chiclet keyboards and glossy screens, and so on. They also remember how god-awful the first iPhone was, having no external programs ("web apps" only), no copy-paste, etc. So when someone suggest the fix to a stupid and somewhat minor problem on their system is to throw out everything that they prefer in the first place, they don't take kindly to it. A similar thing happens when GNU/Linux users (as apposed to Android) suggest Windows users switch to fix their problems with Windows.
Personally, I am considering going back to a BlackBerry 10 system, or picking up a Nokia E7 now that I am aware of continued custom firmware development: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/23324_Released_Delight_17_Symbian_OS.php [allaboutsymbian.com]