One was a jury trial and the other wasn’t. Google had plenty of records of their internal communications but Apple had a different practice. This article by The Verge does a decent job at highlighting the differences.

That can work for small improvements but not for active development at the pace of Chromium and its forks.

Instagram is banned and blocked in Russia but it hasn’t stopped the people from using it at all.

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There are already precedents of software (the Riot games) and the OS itself refusing to work if the requirements are bypassed, so it’s a very risky move that nobody should choose for their main OS.

They absolutely are unreasonably high. My barely overclocked 6700K is sufficient for virtually every new or slightly older game I throw at it, but somehow it’s not enough for the OS?

Since XP, I always upgraded to the next version whenever it came out. The insane hardware requirements of Windows 11 make it the only exception.

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Steam is largely driven by Valve’s own games and freebies as well. 1.5M currently playing Dota 2 and CS 2, with the next best being F2P games: PUBG with 370K online, Apex Legends, and Naraka.

I dont need updates or news and if something goes down, someone will make a post about it on lemmy, mastodon, matrix or peertube.

That’s fair, but I don’t think the same is true for most people. There is still a lot missing from the Fediverse in terms of prompt or important updates, especially if related to a matter outside the mainstream. I truly wish everyone had a presence on the Fedi platforms, but that’s just not the reality when even some of the biggest ideological opponents of Musk or Zuckerberg still actively use their platforms, even if their views or practices threaten their very existence.

At the end of the day, the reason even Privacy Guides recommends all the alternative frontends for sites like YouTube is to allow people to stay in the loop without having to share anything with those platforms that collect and sell data. With Nitter dead and Threads being the next big thing after Twitter, the federation could work as a viable frontend and potentially more.

Are you really comparing following a video game page, a media outlet, favorite musician or actor to an abusive ex? Are you on Twitter or any of Meta’s platforms? If not, how do you get the updates exclusive to social media? What if it’s a website that has no RSS feed?

There’s no doubt they have an ulterior motive. The way they’re federating right now is very one-sided and basically tells people they can just post on Threads and get the best of both worlds as they reach both audiences.

However, I see no harm from this to the dedicated Mastodon users who boycott or avoid Meta. They now get to follow Threads accounts without sharing their phone number or other personal information with Meta.

The data collection argument is weak, since everything you post on Mastodon is already public.

In countries like Georgia and Syria, the minimum annual wage is below $100.

Worth trying first. In my experience, almost every app works without the Google store. You can also block the internet access for any Google service or app via its settings.

It might not work. Look at Epic v. Apple and Apple’s recent solution to the judge’s ruling on third-party payment systems.

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If Epic had required developers to, say, sell games 15% cheaper

Epic cannot do that because

In response to one inquiry from a game publisher, in another example, Valve explained: “We basically see any selling of the game on PC, Steam key or not, as a part of the same shared PC market- so even if you weren’t using Steam keys, we’d just choose to stop selling a game if it was always running discounts of 75% off on one store but 50% off on ours. . . .”

(source)

However, Epic regularly offers coupons out of pocket. Right now you can get 33% off any game above $14.99 or the regional equivalent, as many times as you want, even if the game is already discounted by the publisher. You also get 10% as cashback.

Valve’s actions do not have to copy those of Google for it to engage in anti-competitive behavior. Focus on the Steam-specific arguments deemed reasonable enough for the judge to allow the trial to go through, like those on the MFN, high profit margin related to the 30% fee, user reviews manipulation, and so forth.

Heck I’m sure that they very quickly came up with a functional shopping cart at the very least.

Steam has been offering third-party titles since 2005 but still had no shopping cart as of 2008.