What David Heinemeier Hansson thinks about Apple
Creator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of 37signals, and creator of Omarchy.
David Heinemeier Hansson did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Only David Heinemeier Hansson on Apple. See everyone on Apple
46 dated positions, 2021 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what David Heinemeier Hansson has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsAnyone into the age of agents will eventually realize Apple is a bad fit.
- 6 weeks earlier
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Their wordsIt is an infuriatingly locked-down computer. Now, to Apple's credit, it's a pretty good computer for being locked down, but I don't want a locked-down computer. I wanna own my computer. Better yet, I wanna mutate my computer, and this is where the agentic age needs a new operating system. When you can vibe code whatever app comes to your mind, you should be able to vibe code your operating system.
↗DHH: Future of Programming, AI, Agentic Engineering, Vibe Coding & Linux | Lex Fridman Podcast #501youtube.com 21st of 41 in this recording
- 1 day earlier
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Their wordsThere's not this two-tier system where, well, there's Apple or Windows and they make the real thing and then you can try to hack or patch your little thing around it and it's going to look second tier, it always does.
↗Is Linux the perfect operating system? - Omarchy interview with DHHyoutube.com 2nd of 6 in this recording
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Our readingIntel's Panther Lake has finally matched Apple on power efficiency, so a new laptop should have one.
Their wordsWhat's really important is that if you get a new computer, a new laptop, you get one with an Intel Panther Lake chip. That is the revelation that um just leaped in the Intel side forward. Intel has finally matched Apple on efficiency in terms of uh power usage
↗Is Linux the perfect operating system? - Omarchy interview with DHHyoutube.com 6th of 6 in this recording
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThen, finally, Apple pissed me off enough that I thought I cannot in good conscience continue to spend money on their products if I have such deep disagreements with how they run the company.
↗DHH: How to Build a Profitable Company Without Losing Controlyoutube.com 9th of 27 in this recording
- 11 months earlier
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Their wordsIt's crazy that it took me more than thirty years to realize this, but while I spent time in Apple's walled garden, the free software alternative simply grew better, stronger, and faster. The Linux of 2025 is not the Linux of the 90s or the 00s or even the 10s. It's shockingly more polished, capable, and beautiful.
- 6 weeks earlier
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Their wordsBut as Apple discovered the gold mine, it is to operate a toll booth where you don't have to innovate, where you don't actually even have to make anything, where you can just take 30% of other people's business. There was a rot that crept into the foundation of Apple and that started all the way back from the initial launch of the app store.
↗DHH: Future of Programming, AI, Ruby on Rails, Productivity & Parenting | Lex Fridman Podcast #474youtube.com 31st of 36 in this recording
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Their wordsI think it is incredible and the entire developer ecosystem. Not just on iOS but on Android as well, owe Epic, Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein, an enormous debt of gratitude for taking on the only battle that has ever inflicted a series wound on Apple in this entire sorted campaign of monopoly enforcement.
↗DHH: Future of Programming, AI, Ruby on Rails, Productivity & Parenting | Lex Fridman Podcast #474youtube.com 32nd of 36 in this recording
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Their wordsApple could absolutely stumble and I think they have more reason to stumble now than ever. They're behind on AI, terribly behind. Their software quality is faltering in a bunch of ways.
↗DHH: Future of Programming, AI, Ruby on Rails, Productivity & Parenting | Lex Fridman Podcast #474youtube.com 33rd of 36 in this recording
- 11 days earlier
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Their wordsIf that fully vertically integrated system suddenly is run by people with not quite as much taste as Steve Jobs with not quite as in tune sensibilities about everything from marketing to the vision of computing but instead by a logistics guy.
↗DHH discusses Linux and Omarchyyoutube.com 3rd of 9 in this recording
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Their wordsyou can see like we're about two little bunny hops away from having a computer that's so locked down that I don't get to run the software of my own choice.
↗DHH discusses Linux and Omarchyyoutube.com 4th of 9 in this recording
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Their wordsLike I really dislike what happened when they took this unfortunate turn into services and realized that that was the easiest money they could they could ever make is just take a cut of other people's business. That has a corrupting force I think.
↗DHH discusses Linux and Omarchyyoutube.com 6th of 9 in this recording
- 5 days earlier
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Their wordsI don't know when we'll literally get "The Year of Linux on the Desktop", but I've never been as convinced that its coming as I am now. There's enough dissent in the water. Enough dissatisfaction with both Apple and Microsoft.
- 5 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThis obsession with squeezing every last dollar from developers has produced countless customer-hostile experiences on the iPhone
↗HEY is finally for sale on the iPhone!world.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsbeing forced to hand over 30% of the business, as well as the direct customer relationship, was always an unacceptable overreach
↗HEY is finally for sale on the iPhone!world.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsopen-source Linux is able to run laps around Apple in the workloads that many developers need
↗Cheap mini PCs have gotten really goodworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 months earlier
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Their wordsApple literally needs some fresh blood to turn the ship around
↗Age is a problem at Appleworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 10 months earlier
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Our readingApple has lost its presumption of good faith
Their wordsApple has lost its presumption of good faith over the last five years with an ever-larger group of people, and now we've reached a tipping point
↗Hating Apple goes mainstreamworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 2 months earlier
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Our readingApple could quit Europe
Their wordsApple could quit Europe. Stop selling its products in the EU.
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Their wordsSo public criticism of Apple is now motivating grounds for being denied access to the App Store?
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsnothing will fundamentally change at Apple until they have the kind of leadership transition that unlocked so much value at Microsoft
- 9 days earlier
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Their wordsApple desperately needs the competition for the mindshare of web developers
↗VSCode + WSL makes Windows awesome for web developmentworld.hey.com
- 6 weeks earlier
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Their wordsBut the red mist of vindictiveness is blinding Apple's view of history, and making them repeat the mistakes it took Microsoft two decades to undo
↗Microsoft taught Apple nothingworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Our readingApple is arrogant
Their wordsI don't believe we've ever seen this level of arrogance from a major tech monopolist in the history of the computing industry
↗Apple actually lost a court case for once, but they refuse to comply in good faithworld.hey.com
- 8 days earlier
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Their wordsTons of businesses, including ours, simply aren't viable if Apple cuts off the air supply that is access to the pocket computers most popular with people who pay for software
- 4 days earlier
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Their wordsthere is no rule of law with the app stores, except that of the jungle, and Apple is the 800 lbs gorilla, ruling as it sees fit
↗Apple rejects the HEY Calendar from their App Storeworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsHopefully our example, and the countless others we've seen over the years, will finally force competition authorities around the world to act
↗Apple rejects the HEY Calendar from their App Storeworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 13 months earlier
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Their wordsTheir monopolistic bullying, their shakedown tactics, and their sense of entitlement to a cut of all the economic activity happening on their computers has done more to damage the relationship with developers
↗Apple's big monopoly loss comes curtesy of the EUworld.hey.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThe EU just might make Apple lovable again by outlawing their monopolistic excesses
↗Apple's big monopoly loss comes curtesy of the EUworld.hey.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- 10 months earlier
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Their wordsThere's nothing symbiotic about Apple's current relationship with its developers
↗Gritting your teeth, biding your timeworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 12 days earlier
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Their wordsBy granting themselves audit rights "pursuant to the entitlement's terms and conditions", they've shown how they can apply their 27% tax to any developer's economic activity at will
↗Apple reveals road map to tax any business with an app at 27%world.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsApple has, perhaps inadvertently, just revealed to the world how they might go from a three-trillion dollar company to a hundred-trillion dollar company
↗Apple reveals road map to tax any business with an app at 27%world.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 5 months earlier
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Their wordsReality is going to refute the fear that Apple and Google have been working so hard to stoke
- 4 days earlier
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Their wordsDevelopers have suffered a litany of indignities under Apple's monopoly power over the years, and now they'll suffer a few more
↗Apple's new settlement is a corrupt jokeworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 4 months earlier
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Our readingApple is an accomplice to fraud
Their wordsNow the problem is that Apple is defacto an accomplice to fraud.
- 1 day earlier
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Their wordsApple has since shown in market after market - be that gaming bundles, news aggregation, TV-show production, fitness training, payment gateways, you name it - that they can use their iPhone monopoly to gain an unfair advantage in any other market, and the App Store is the main vehicle to commit those antitrust offenses
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Their wordsThe App Store is classic monopoly tollbooth that Apple is trying to justify by operating a security theater
- 11 days earlier
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Their wordsApple presents the App Store as a highly curated, secure mall of apps which have been thoroughly vetted, and that you can safely install without any due diligence. But it's not and you shouldn't.
↗The App Store is broken because it wasn't designed to workworld.hey.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsApple must accept their unique and critical position as the dominant maker of pocket computers in the US. Treat that role with the respect of a common carrier. Embrace net neutrality principles and treat all app makers the same regardless of business model or competitive standing with Apple's own offerings
↗The App Store is broken because it wasn't designed to workworld.hey.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsZero chance either Apple or Google would have announced these show-pony programs out of the goodness of their heart without the pressure
↗Google affirms the duopoly grip by following Apple's 15%-on-the-first-million schemeworld.hey.com
- 9 days earlier
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Their wordsApple and Google are simply acting like the lords that in the early capitalist era decided that what used to be free or at least cheap -- distributing software over the internet -- now suddenly needed to be taxed at 30%
- 4 days earlier
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Their wordsmy money's on Apple eventually deciding that this is not a fight worth the damage to their brand, to their political standing, to their relationship with developers, or their other causes.
↗The Arizona House stands up to Apple and Googleworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsApple should absolutely be barred from using their monopoly position in computing services to act as a debt collector for financial firms
↗Apple can brick your computer if you miss a payment to Goldman Sachs on the Apple Cardworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Our readingCompanies operating essential digital services should be separated from loanshark businesses
Their wordsIf you're operating an essential digital services company, like Apple is with the iPhone, you can't also be the muscle for a loanshark business that charges 22% APR
↗Apple can brick your computer if you miss a payment to Goldman Sachs on the Apple Cardworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 8 days earlier
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Our readingApple's 30% tax on developers is unfair
Their wordsHow is it fair that billion-dollar companies that use thousands of times more of Apple's App Store infrastructure get away with paying $99/year, while a mid-sized software company making $10m/year has to pay $3m?
↗Testimony before the Arizona House of Representativesworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsThis is classic tying and bundling behavior, as long recognized by antitrust laws as harmful to a fair market place
↗Testimony before the Arizona House of Representativesworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece