About Freedom 0 - as much as most people aren’t philosophers, I think we tend to stick to the following principles:
If it is a freedom that I don’t use, I won’t care if it’s there.
If I want to do something that has been restricted - crack it!
As much as Apple being a pain in the butt when it comes to customer lock-in, Microsoft has its fair share as well. But since most people are using a PC and run Windows, getting patches that would unlock / overcome certain degrees of freedom are much more readily available than in the Apple world.
Same goes with many other software / hardware products really.
I’m not sure Apple hardware, say PPC and Intel on, counts as much of a dongle. Especially Intel based hardware. You can freely install any OS you want on it, they [Apple] even bundle the Windows drivers for all the proprietary hardware, backlight keyboard, webcam, volume, eject button, etc… on the Leopard install disc.
They promote a close ecosystem of tight integration of Software and Hardware with nice results and if you chose to use OS X you are bound to apple hardware but if you already have the hardware you are not bound to OS X and the hardware still functions.
In terms of the standard PC model of upgrading individual hardware components you are more restricted than a standard PC, especially in the realm of video cards ( see the recent top end card that only works on the latest Mac Pro).
The crux of the discussion though, and this goes back to the argument for consoles, i think usability and mass consumer devices is tightly bound and ultimately preferred by consumers who “just want it to work”. That is the tradeoff between freedom and close systems.
I really wish you’d stop writing about OSX and Apple until you’ve bought one and used it. I love your shit brother, except for when you start talking about Apple.
I have a quad core Mac Pro. I put the ram in myself that I bought from a third party.
I use a third party e-sata card that isn’t made by Apple.
I added a second video card, all by myself, so I can run quad monitors.
I added my own harddrives.
I added my own soundcard.
Most of the tools I use are open source and free, unless an obviously superior closed source commercial version exists (I’m looking, lovingly, at you Photoshop and Final Cut Pro).
I’ve also installed OSX on my Dell laptop and it works 99% flawlessly, certainly better than XP on the same laptop.
Seriously, I love you and your blog, but the veiled apple bashing wrapped in thinly stretched metaphors is a little tiring.
The real question is: Why should anyone give a crap? Can anyone give a real-world example of why I should care, one which might actually have some remote chance of affecting me, one which extends beyond some tiny fringe group such as bloggers with over 11 blogs?
Somehow I’m not surprised that in a post mentioning FOSS I see numerous irrelevant and incoherent rants about how the U.S. is a police state and that many people are financing debt (the horror! Next time pay attention in Econ 101). If you ask me, this is precisely what’s wrong with free software: There’s potential there, sure, but it seems that most people engaged in it are too busy hating Corporate America to come up with any original ideas.
Depends on the market. All my professional work in the last five years has been on Linux systems.
I’ve worked for a major research university, a startup, and Intel. All ran Linux for their enterprise systems. The all ran Windows for their desktop systems. It’s about who is making the best software for your needs.
On servers Linux/UNIX is ahead of Microsoft or Apple. On the corporate desktop Windows is ahead and for consumers Apple is the in the lead right now.
First, freedom zero is of little real use to a general consumer,
because consumers don’t really use software.
Nitpick: whether they “use” software or not is not entirely the issue. With that argument, it may be appropriate to say that freedom zero is of no -direct- use to the consumer. But “direct” is not identically equal to “real”.
Standardizing on tools and parts in auto manufacturing can be argued as being of no direct use to consumers since most don’t work on their cars anymore.
It can have a indirect, but -real- effect, however, by the effect it has on the people who maintain the cars for those consumers.
They may not understand this easily or without pain, but they will realize it in time. Just as certain car owners who had to pay $600 for a “headlamp array” may be driven to other cars, that use cheaper sealed-beam headlights, or even super-cheap replaceable bulbs.
It will affect -future- purchases.
Not to mention, open source software is just more fun to write.
For me, that intellectual hive of people all looking to build the
best software is addictive, especially to someone who has spent a
great deal of time surround by people purely interested in
getting a paycheck.
Amen, brother. Testify. More fun to build software with, too.