iPad Is a "Huge Step Backward" 1634
An anonymous reader writes "FSF's John Sullivan launches the Defective by Design campaign and petition to rain on Steve's parade, barely minutes out of the starting gate. 'This is a huge step backward in the history of computing,' said FSF's Holmes Wilson, 'If the first personal computers required permission from the manufacturer for each new program or new feature, the history of computing would be as dismally totalitarian as the milieu in Apple's famous Super Bowl ad.' The iPad has DRM writ large: you can only install what Apple says you may, and 'computing' goes consumer mainstream — no more twiddling, just sit back, spend your money, and watch the show — while we allow you to." What is clear is that the rise of the App Store removes control of the computer from the user. It makes me wonder what the next generation of OS X will look like.
Re:I've said it before and I'll say it again (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you for this. The only thing I love more than a new Apple product is Ann Coulter's VJJ. I think I'm in heaven.
At least nobody is complaining about (Score:5, Funny)
it having only one mouse button.
Re:Dear FSF (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dear FSF (Score:1, Funny)
You're absolutely right. It's such a shame that no one has yet determined a way to break the locks that bind the iPhone and the iPod Touch to the App Store. You could even say these devices are imprisoned, jailed. If only some intrepid group of hackers could find a way to break these devices out of jail, allowing those that wish it a way to modify their devices or install "unauthorized" applications onto them. If only there were some way to get the word out, and allow those that wish to make use of this mythical hack to find it. Perhaps some day such technology will exist.
Phhhht! It will rain black before that ever happens!
Re:I've said it before and I'll say it again (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Any Mac Fan to explain why being slaved is good (Score:3, Funny)
what? you mean most people who buy ipods really just want a solid MP3 player with an elegant interface, and maybe some extra applications? pfft.
come on, man. you know most consumers secretly want an open platform device they can code for. just the other day my grandmother was decrying that she can't run linux on her nano.
Re:"Customers Can't Be Trusted With Freedom" (Score:2, Funny)
Re:You can actually programs without permission... (Score:3, Funny)
Exactly, that is why nobody writes apps for Nokia, Windows Mobile, and Android.
all three of those failed platforms have no apps at all.
How is it there at the BSA? is fred still working in accounting?
Re:Dear FSF (Score:2, Funny)
Re:They're artificial limitations. That's the prob (Score:5, Funny)
Worse than that, since all the media talks about is the latest trendy new Ford, it soon becomes like you're the oddball if you don't have their latest model. Everyone crowds around Ford's latest models and everyone else is all but ignored.
Children growing up only see Ford's car and think that is synonymous with a car and soon all there is is Ford and their overpriced overhyped standard.
Right time for another dried frog pill before the slashdot car analogy gets out of had
Re:They're artificial limitations. That's the prob (Score:1, Funny)
Then don't buy the fucking car? What part of choice are you missing? Is it that you WANT to be a trendy homosexual hipster yuppie but can't afford the price of admission? No one is twisting your arm to purchase it. You are just bitching on other peoples behalf.
Re:Dear FSF (Score:3, Funny)
But this 'worthwhile organisation (sic)' comes across as a bunch of wingnuts.
FSF is the Sea Shepherds, PETA, and MADD of the Software World.
Re:At least nobody is complaining about (Score:1, Funny)
What do you mean " only one mouse button"? What kind of idiot would come up with something like that!
Re:And if every car was speed limited (Score:3, Funny)
Until then, we'll keep driving our Toyotas...
Re:Average users don't WANT control (Score:3, Funny)
over their computers. Go ahead. Give it to them. Explain that they need to right-click on the icon and choose "Run as Administrator," or that they need to run spyware scans, or virus scans, or allow the machine to install updates, or use Browser X instead of Browser Y, or manage a filesystem in a clean and organized way. What do they say? Come on, we've all heard it.
"Can't you fix it so that I don't have to worry about that?" "Why doesn't the computer just do that for me?" "Why do I have to do that? I never had to do that before." "Do I really have to worry about this stuff?" "Just make it work, I don't care how, and I don't want to know." "I'll just buy a new computer."
They DO NOT WANT to perform maintenance, worry about security, track down tools, learn to use said tools, administer storage or filesystems, etc. Given the choice between technology that slides into malfunction when not administered properly (i.e. "it's broken" as far as they can tell) and no technology at all, most regular people will simply opt for "none," as in "I tried it for a while, but it was always broken or crashing or getting a virus, it sucked. I sold it and just went back to my old XYZ."
Say what you will, but the masses are sheep and they're happy as sheep. You cannot teach them to think, vote, raise children, or use computers responsibly because they DO NOT WANT TO BE THE SHEPHERD, only the sheep. And there will always be a market to sell them sheep-friendly devices.
This comment is just baa a ad
Re:I've said it before and I'll say it again (Score:3, Funny)
So you agree with my hypothesis that she is actually a horse dressed as a human?
Re:Dear FSF (Score:2, Funny)
And most importantly, it allows them to think differently, EXACTLY like every other Apple Zombie (Applebie?) out there...
You'd be non-conforming too, if you looked just like me.
Re:The Don't Buy It (Score:1, Funny)
I have an iphone and I grudgingly accept its limitations...
Can't say I blame you - even some of the people that Moses freed from slavery wanted to go back.
Re:iPhone vs iTouch vs iPad? Do I have it right? (Score:3, Funny)
Upgrade the iPad and you have a MaxiPad.
Re:They're artificial limitations. That's the prob (Score:3, Funny)
In that case, yes. Like electric vehicles. I think the GP contradicted you because he presumed that you must be disagreeing with the person you replied to (as is normal Slashdot procedure) and because the parent post was correct, attempted to find a way to show yours was wrong. In fact, you are both correct and we have TWO bad situations of artificial constraint.
In future, you should probably wait for someone else to post a reply when you want to agree with someone, that way you can reply to the second person's post enabling you to both support the GP that you think is right and honour the Slashdot protocol of only posting to correct someone.
HTH,
Harmony.
Re:They're artificial limitations. That's the prob (Score:2, Funny)