I blame the iPad kids for this one. People are being raised on touch-based devices more and more, and with people using things like iPads and iPhones early on they learn technology is touch based. This is just the next step with that. I also think it reflects a larger concern with a lack of digital literacy for many people, where companies like Apple make their devices incredibly simple and locked down to trap the consumer, until they don’t know how to operate basic functions of the operating system like a file system. You already don’t have a real filesystem on an iOS device anyway. This is the next step in making the MacBooks like iPads and iPhones and making the consumers less technically skilled so that they can be exploited. After the hardware is basically the same (the same M-series chips that power MacOS now power iOS as well) then the software for MacBooks will be locked down over time, until there’s basically no escape from this walled garden, not that anyone would really be able to escape it, since people lack digital skills. (but that last part is just a theory)
All of the advice I give depends on your preferred level of privacy. If I had to give you all of these services in 1 provider I’d suggest Infomaniak, a Swiss tech company. https://www.infomaniak.com/en/ksuite/kdrive VPN: Mullvad (it collects less data from the user, even) Email: not sure about this. I never used Proton Mail since it didn’t work for me with IMAP protocols by design. Password Manager: Bitwarden or self-hosted Vaultwarden AI: I use DuckDuckGo’s Duck.ai interface, although I’m not entirely sure if that measures up to the privacy standard you need.