One week ago [1], I wrote “[b]ut **no**, I do not, we do not, own our own computing devices any more.” The context of my saying that was in the forced “thou shalt **not** downgrade thy iPhone” I received from Apple [2] but it's becoming more apparent that I don't “own” my Mac mini either—it's that Apple has benevolenty allowed the use of their Mac mini by yours truly.
I've just now learned about the System Integrity Protection [3] “feature” that El [DELETED-Presidente de Por Vida [4]-DELETED] Capitan [5] contains (really Apple? Another series of pointless names for operating system releases? What, exactly is so wrong with 10.11?).
root is no longer root [6].
Yup, not even root can delete all of /sbin, not that you would want to do that, but the point is—Apple is making damn sure you, as “owner” of the machine, don't go deleting files willy-nilly. Of course Apple can delete files willy-nilly on “your” machine, because they know better.
And really, it's not quite as dire [7] as I make it out to be (it can be disabled—link via Reddit [8]). I can understand why Apple does this—to protect users from malware [9] but I feel as if I don't actually own my computer. And now I'm just a bit more wary about upgrading my Mac mini [10] (as I sit here, looking at the “Install El Presidente de Por Vida” icon, just waiting for the 16G (Gigabytes) of RAM (Random Access Memory) to arrive).
Sigh.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_for_Life
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X_El_Capitan
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superuser