Linked by David Adams on Thu 1st Oct 2009 01:39 UTC
As much as we like to stay away from letting real-world politics bleed over into our ongoing discussion of tech politics, I found an interesting essay over at The Economist's "Democracy in America" blog that draws a parallel between Apple's Mac/iPhone user-friendly ecosystem and the Microsoft Windows freer-but-more-chaotic ecosystem and how that lines up along the authoritarian/libertarian spectrum of real-world political division. They don't mention Open Source in this essay, but I'm sure it could make an interesting addition to the discussion. The essay's main point is that, in governance, attempts to make life more user-friendly for citizens usually ends up giving them less freedom of choice, and a certain segment of the political establishment will reliably oppose such moves. The idea that the tradeoff between choice and usability persists into the world of governance really set me to thinking. What kind of country would you rather live in? An Apple one, a Microsoft one, or an Open Source one?
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Member since:
2006-12-05
And yet, that is exactly what has become of operating systems in general (and not just by the "fanboys," but also by the often-selfish developers/companies behind them).
Company gains too much control (through illegal means, I might add), people get annoyed, and create an OS that they feel is "better" and give a license that allows modification/fixing of code by third-parties (BSD/GPL). It's sad, but if anyone ever tells you that this is a perfect world, they're full of dog shit. And if companies were a little more "open" in the first place (*ahem* Microsoft, Apple...), we could be spared if this shit. But no, highly-restrictive legal mumbo-jumbo EULAs are here to stay, so there will always be a desire for freedom (or at least not be treated like unethical asshole thieves).
Edited 2009-10-01 09:10 UTC