You you have always been able to back up your iDevice to a Windows instance, if that is what you prefer to use.

You want me to pay for a Windows license to run a Windows VM on Linux, all just so I can back up an iPhone? I don't have to do any of this crap with an Android phone.

And do you believe that running Windows in a virtual machine prevents Microsoft from getting the telemetry data and who knows what else? While you're right that running Android does expose (some of) your data to advertisers, with Windows, we're not even sure what exactly is leaving your machine the last time I checked.

Or are you suggesting that an average Linux user who wants to back up their iPhone needs to buy and install Windows in a VM, and then is further expected to tinker with ingress/egress network rules to make sure no data is being sent over to Microsoft? I'd say that's a tall order.

> And do you believe that running Windows in a virtual machine prevents Microsoft from getting the telemetry data and who knows what else?

If you only use that VM for backing up your iPhone, there are no useful telemetry signals for them to collect in the first place.

I was just reacting to the iPhone vs Android element of your comment. Obviously you'd have to buy a $1000+ macbook to backup your iPhone.

"You're only allowed to virtualize OSX on Apple hardware."

Haha, good one. Who cares?

I mean, I do. It's a pain in the ass to legally integrate our MacOS app into our normal CI/CD pipeline because of this.

It also does put a shelf life on the underlying software in a way that even crazy old computer software like for an IBM 700 series doesn't have.