> Well I'm hoping we're finally getting the shove to move off x86, there's nothing particularly exciting about the architecture itself...

I actually largely agree with you here. We need to be transitioning to open ISAs, so getting off x86 isn't something I disagree with. However, jumping from one proprietary ISA to another, slower one doesn't exactly make sense to me. No matter how you frame it, x86 is still the performance and compatibility king. I'd love a RISC-V laptop as much as the next guy, I think this is more about Apple increasing their profit margins by re-using their ISA licensing from their phones/tablets.

> Emphasis mine - what is the functionality trade-off that you're referring to? The App Store has never stopped me from running any app from outside the App Store.

Well, the discussion is the Apple ecosystem, not just Mac, and in that sense the App Store does prevent you from ingesting third-party software or running arbitrary code on your own device.

I also don't think this is about security as much as it's about control. Apple now directly competes with companies like Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, Microsoft, Meta, the list goes on for days. If they control their hardware and software experience end-to-end, then they control the users too.

> ...and nothing to do with restricting user freedom

But how exactly can we prove that? Apple says one thing and does another. They say they're protecting user privacy by hashing your cloud photos with a neural network. They say they've built the fastest GPU and then backpedal when it gets benchmarked. If they give you less capabilities with each update and say it's making you safer, I don't think I'd take their word entirely at face value; maybe security is part of the motivation, but almost certainly not the entire story.

As for OpenBSD? I actually like their approach for the most part, but there's a reason it's still a fairly niche OS. People like having options, and taking away your Linuxulator and Bluetooth modules doesn't make for a super enticing desktop experience. MacOS suffers the same issue, but more for the development crowd. There are so many footguns in MacOS for developing standard *NIX software that it makes my head spin. Want the standard GNU coreutils? Of course they're not built in, go grab a package manager and download them posthaste! Want to use Git? Here, download 750mb of random utilities onto your system so the 20mb program can execute. Oh, you wanted Bash to be up-to-date? We sorta forgot about that one...

...but their MacOS, iPad and iPhone development tools get fixed just fine. Gotta tend to the breadwinners before you take care of the intrinsic issues in your OS, I guess.

In closing, I don't actually disagree with a lot of your rhetoric, but I don't think you're addressing the parent's statement. Apple is flighty, they do crazy things in the blink of an eye and everyone else is forced to just go along. What happens if I go back to the Apple ecosystem and they remove all the iPhone and Macbook ports? There could be so many "gotchas" that many people simply don't feel safe going back to that lifestyle anymore. There is no roadmap, and that scares people who rely on stable software for a living. It's why I end up developing more on Linux than I do on Mac.