Except that modulo very specialized software, those apps exist or they are consumable as web apps from nearly any OS.

Except that there actually is software for the things you do every day on Ubuntu (and Linux in general).

The network effect is the problem here. There's no Linux app that lets me connect to my network of friends and family using the Facetime protocol, which they are all on. Oh I can video chat, for sure, with the nobody else I know who is willing to migrate to a new chat software.

I'm not aware of any non-Apple facetime clients. Are your friends and family all locked in to Apple just because nobody wants to try a different chat app? I know plenty of people who don't have any facetime client whatsoever because they don't have any Apple products whatsoever. I suggest that "nobody else you know" wants to migrate to new chat software because nobody's asking them to.

Nextcloud, Matrix, Discord, Signal, Telegram, Skype, Zoom, hell even Pidgin. These are all competitors to Apple's Facetime -- they all have voice and/or video chat on Linux, Windows, Mac, Android, iOS.

Here, let me help you start the conversation that way:

> You: Hey mom/dad/friend/acquaintance/boss, I'm going to use a different program to talk to people who don't have an iPhone. Can you install it and talk to me on it for a bit and test it?

> Mom/dad/friend/acquaintance/boss: Yeah sure what's the app?

> Another mom/dad/friend/acquaintance/boss: What? No.

I wonder which way the conversation will go?

About a quarter of my circle are elderly people who are literally incapable of installing an app themselves. I might have an extreme case, but this world you live in isn't real. Even the young tech savvy ones would immediately be like, "This isn't magically/obviously better, just Facetime me."

An environment where people are forced to install software doesn’t seem like a better world for elderly people who are incapable of installing an app.

Perhaps they should be allowed to buy an appliance where most of their basic computing needs have great, widely used, secure solutions out of the box.

It's called an iPhone.

That’s a shame, I guess? Ubuntu exists though, so if you want definitive control, you can have it. If you want Brand X commercial software that only runs on Mac, you can have that too. I don’t see why Apple should be required to facilitate both.

such as?