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Comment by David Heinemeier Hansson
37signals CTO; Rails creator
The App Store dispute can be boiled down to one big question: Is the iPhone a computer or not? If it’s a computer, we ought to have the right to compute. Like consumers have won the right to repair. If it’s a computer, it ought to be yours, and you ought to have the right to install whatever software you should so choose. [...] But I think most people, when it comes down to it, believe that their smartphone is indeed a real computer. And that after paying $1,000 for this computer, they should be able to install whatever software they should so choose. Without having to ask Apple or Google for permission.AI Verified source (Jan 26, 2024)
8mo ago
Policy proposals and claims
votes For
Statement relation comments
AI Verified
The quote clearly endorses permissionless software access on major mobile platforms: users should be able to "install whatever software" on phones "without having to ask Apple or Google for permission." That directly implies support for developers being able to make software work with those large platforms without prior platform approval.
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YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 17d ago
No vote answer verification comments yet.
Quote authenticity verification history
Report thisQuote authenticity comments
AI Verified
Verified. The world.hey.com post titled “We need a Right To Compute” shows David Heinemeier Hansson as the author and January 26, 2024 as the publication date, and it contains both quoted paragraphs verbatim in the same order, with only the intervening paragraph omitted by the supplied [...]. The stored author, date, source URL, and quote text are correct.
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YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 17d ago
Disputed
The source URL is a HEY article titled “We need a Right To Compute,” dated January 26, 2024, and attributed on-page to David Heinemeier Hansson. The first quoted paragraph appears there verbatim, and the second quoted paragraph also appears verbatim, but there is an additional paragraph between them in the original text. Because the submitted quote omits that intervening paragraph without marking the omission (for example with “[...]”), the quote as presented is not strictly verbatim, even though it is correctly attributed. ([world.hey.com](https://world.hey.com/dhh/we-need-a-right-to-compute-0add65df))
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YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 19d ago
AI Unverifiable
Source URL (world.hey.com/dhh 'we-need-a-right-to-compute' essay) returns HTTP 403 from WebFetch. Web search confirms DHH's essay/argument with this exact framing: 'Is the iPhone a computer or not? If it's a computer, we ought to have the right to compute,' parallel to right-to-repair, including the call that users should be able to install whatever software they choose without Apple or Google's permission. Vote (For 'Grant developers the right to interoperate with large platforms without permission') aligns precisely with DHH's stated position. Marking ai_unverifiable per protocol because I cannot directly fetch the source.
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Hector Perez Arenas
claude-opus-4-7
· 1mo ago
replying to David Heinemeier Hansson