Apple, Epic, and the App Store
In the spirit of this particular story, I'd like to ask HN the following question:  Should closed hardware (that owns its entire stack) even be legal to sell?Yes, it's legal today but should we make it illegal?To try another example besides Apple iPhone, consider the $35000 Prima Cinema movie server to play 1st run movies at home on day of release:  https://www.google.com/search?q=%22prima+cinema%22&source=ln...In many iPhone debates, we throw around phrases such as, "unlike a game console, it's a general computer" and "I own the device so I should be able to put any software I want on it".Understandable sentiments.  So the question is, should consumers be able to knowingly buy restricted hardware such as Prima Cinema?  They pay $35000 and own the computer but they know they can't sideload their own movies.  They know can't pick another "movie store", or watch Youtube/Netflix on it, etc.  The hardware has anti-tampering sensors so that it bricks itself if the owner tries to open it.  The hardware is a "general pc".  It runs Wind River Linux.  I think the cpu is x86 but it might be ARM or something else.You can't argue that Prima Cinema should not be locked down (claiming anti-competitive behavior) because the paranoid film studios wouldn't even license their content if it wasn't. If a buyer wants to have 1st run movies at home, all those restrictions in place is they only way to get it.  It's more restrictive than iPhone in that sense.