I’d venture to guess that people not caring about Freedom Zero is a specific case about people not really caring about their freedoms at all (as long as they’re told they’re free).
People don’t care because to the general population the argument makes no sense. Non techies see their computer as an object that does a task, in exactly the same way they see their TV, radio and DVD player, washing machine and car.
To them the concept of being able to modify it or run some other OS makes absolutely no sense. Try explaining the concept of an operating system to a non-techie. Now try convincing them they should care that companies want to make it hard to change their OS.
It’s as nonsensical as trying to convince someone that they need to change the motor in their electric drill because the current one is made so that you can’t take it apart and modify it.
“There are no crude, selfish third parties to screw the experience up behind your back. No oddball hardware, no incompatible drivers, no more software which has to deal with a combinatorial explosion of potential configurations.”
Well, one of four isn’t bad, but the fact that that one is only partially correct skews your score.
There are no third party software or hardware vendors on the Mac? Really? I know quite a few developers who will need to have this news broken to them gently. Funny, here I thought they were making their money selling software for that “closed” platform. They must have been just printing it up in their basement.
Apple’s hardware platform is rather open. There are some internal components which are heavily controlled (only a few video card choices, for instance), but generally speaking, the delineation between an OS X-compatible bit of hardware (plugged into a slot, or into a USB/Firewire port) and one which is not is, quite simply, the willingness of the hardware vendor to write the software driver for their hardware.
No incompatible drivers? There certainly are enough drivers that they could be incompatible. The reason why driver incompatibilities are generally not seen is that OS X has a well-designed driver framework. Still, it’s not impossible - and in fact is very easy - to write a KEXT which kernel panics the system and trashes whatever might have been in memory at the time. Windows has improved markedly in this area in the past two revisions, and the two platforms seem about on par with each other there.
Combinatorial explosion of configurations? While there are fewer available choices on Mac hardware than on Windows hardware almost by definition (as there are many non-OS X devices and not many non-Windows devices), the simple fact is that there are more combinations possible than there are owners of systems. In other words, no one, period, is ever going to be able to thoroughly test every single Windows hardware configuration with their software. Likewise, though, no one is ever going to be able to thoroughly test every single OS X hardware configuration either.
For whatever it is worth, Apple is far from the only company in the PC space using the computer itself as a dongle. I don’t know if Dell still ships its Dell-specific load of crapware on all of their boxes, but at least eight years ago (wow, it’s been that long!) they half-filled every hard drive they shipped with delete-me apps which were locked to their set of BIOS/motherboard combinations. The difference is: Apple’s locked software (OS X and iLife) are heavily desired, because Apple invested money into making top-tier products instead of feature checkbox shovelware. No one cares that Dell’s Windows Explorer replacement wouldn’t run on anything but a T800r, because no one in their right mind even wanted to run it there!
The difference between OS X and Windows is simple. In Windows, the OS and the hardware are somewhat disjointed. There are hardware “advisories” which Microsoft publishes, but, honestly, if you can get Windows running on the pile of aluminum cans in your garage you won’t hear Microsoft pounding on your door with a cease and desist letter. In OS X, Apple actively keeps the OS tied to the motherboard. More loosely, the motherboard is somewhat tied to certain other hardware devices (eg, the aforementioned video card), and less tied to things like the case. Outside of that, though, the OS doesn’t determine the software.
Is that a significant area of “lock down”? Well, yeah, obviously. It means you won’t be buying your next Mac for $99 at WalMart. But, it doesn’t change most of what you are talking about in your article. You can use that machine however you want (even removing OS X and putting a completely different kernel on it). You have complete freedom to do whatever you’d like with the product.
To sum up an all-too-long post so far: OS X is not “zero freedom”. It’s more like “90% freedom” wherein Windows is defined as “92% freedom” and an unachievable ideal upper limit exists for “100% freedom” (“Freedom Zero” in Mark’s terminology).
“In the long run, the utility of all non-Free software approaches zero.”
If you chart “utility” on the “y” axis and “time” on the “x” axis, indeed, you’ll see all software (free or not) hit the x-axis and stick there, eventually.
However, the debatable point is NOT where it ends up, but how much area sits beneath that graph, especially when time-weighted such that ‘u’ utility a year from now is roughly equivalent to ‘10*u’ utility right now.
While there is always the very real possibility that your non-free software of choice will have its graph plummet tomorrow, the likelihood is that you will get a huge amount of utility from it between now and when it becomes useless. The same is true of free software. What is really important, which completely outweight the “future integral”, is how much utility you are going to get from that software in the next week, month, and year.
For instance: imagine a “free” application with 80% of the utility (factoring in usability as well as features which are to be used) of a “for fee” application. Over the next year, barring the relatively unlikely event that the for-fee application gets shelved by its developer AND they issue a recall of all sold bits from your hard drive, you’ll get 25% additional work done with the for-fee application. Imagining that the “for fee” application lasts for two years before being abandoned, and the “free” application lasts for four years before being abandoned, you’ll have gotten 25% more done with the “for fee” application over the course of those first two years. Then, what happens? Well, most likely, then you turn to the “free” application and use it for the remaining two years.
@David
"not using a particular file-format because the codec is distributed in binary-only format."
Well, that is a bad example since it has caused quite a few people headaches. E.g. all those who used the Indeo 5 codec for their video now find that they can not use them with 64bit video editing programs without converting them first.
If you rely on binary formats, at least if they do not have a 50 % market share, you always risk to have a choice between a massive conversion effort or just losing your data.
For a lot of people their 5-year old data does not matter and those of course do not have to bother.
@John
"I used to think Linux people didn’t value their time, after wasting days trying to configure a server with a wretched interface."
I think a lot of most Linux people have wasted hours to find that one check box they needed in one of e.g. Microsoft’s products but could not remember where it is. And decided that a searchable and well documented text configuration file is just so much easier to use.
I use Linux because I usually do not want to have a Gui (though I sometimes install one to learn the first steps and get a working starting point), but preferences obviously differ.
“To clarify, the Mac is the dongle to allow you to run Mac OS X. You cannot (particularly feasibly) run Mac OS X on a Dell, for instance. Because you don’t have the dongle: the Mac.”
Apple is a hardware company, not a software company (well, not an operating system company if we’re including the Pro applications). If you just buy Apple hardware and run Linux/Windows on it, it makes no difference to them. OS X is simply a differentiator to the competition to make the hardware more attractive.
So, go buy some AAPL while the market is down and ride the wave.
““It just works.” And why wouldn’t it? There are no crude, selfish third parties to screw the experience up behind your back. No oddball hardware, no incompatible drivers, no more software which has to deal with a combinatorial explosion of potential configurations.”
From these statements I get the feeling you are either ignorant of the Mac platform, or attempting to create flame bait to get more eyes on your post. Rarely, does any software “Just Work”, but Apple does their best to make it so. Just as we all do as developers. Yes, the OS is locked down, but any 3rd party can develop for OS X without Apple’s blessing. In fact, every OS X install ships with Xcode, Apple’s first class IDE, at no extra charge. This in fact encourages development. The IDE is not a limited version and is the same version Apple uses. A professional copy of Visual Studio alone is almost as much as the Mac I’m typing this on right now.
I agree with you that in the long run, all closed source software is dead from the start. Given enough time, only the open source projects will be carried forward. When companies die, typically their software goes with it. Maybe proprietary software’s roll will be primarily to drive innovation in the open source community. As developers we need to face the fact that due to the ubiquity of computing the public will continue to be push in the direction of computing as an appliance.
brian,
“Many Verizon phones can play mp3s … but to get the mp3 on the phone you have to buy a crapply compressed version from V-Case for 2$”
This is not true. I have an LG Chocolate Verizon phone and I downloaded all my ripped CDs on it. You can still buy $1 songs on any service and put it on an LG Chocolate. The only catch is that you have to BUY the media kit that is used to sync the song onto the phone from the computer. However the kit includes a (1) 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB xSD card, (2) wired or wireless headphones, and (3) a cable to connect the phone to the PC. Note the 8GB card does not work on the Chocolate, but it does on the newer phones.
I don’t work for Verizon, I’m just a happy customer.
That’s an easy question to answer. No one cares about freedom 0 because 99% of the market have busy lives with kids and jobs and families and hobbies… they want their car to run, their oven to get hot, their shower to flow. They’re not in the 1% of Woz-like geeks who want to install “TurboTemp .76 beta” on their oven. They just don’t care. They want a machine that let’s them get their email, shop on amazon.com, and maybe balance their checkbook. And that’s OK. Apple’s smart to serve a target audience that wants to do a handful of things with a computer, then move on with their lives.
Heck, with no prodding from me whatsoever, my MOM has bought and shares to iMacs with her family, and my GRANDPARENTS each have their own iMac. Guess how many tech support calls I get? Zero. Now that’s freedom.
We all need to stop navel-gazing and see things from the perspective of the masses out there who aren’t programmers…
Quick example: last Christmas I bought my daughter an iPod to use with her iMac. Not to be outdone, I bought myself a Sandisk MP3 player to use with Rhapsody on my PC.
To cut a very long story short, it took me three hours of monkeying around with driver versions, reboots, etc. to get the Sandisk working. And, yes, I plugged the iPhone into the Mac and it “just worked”.
After twenty some years of struggling with getting new devices and software working on Windows PCs, I’m now an Apple convert. I suddenly realized I don’t have time for this nonsense any more.
Freedom 0 may not matter to society on a conscious level, but historically speaking, open source solutions come out ahead in the long game.
I don’t like how Apple limits consumers. If I buy OSX that was built to run on an x86 chip, why can’t I run on an x86 machine with similar hardware to an Apple machine? The answer is simple: Apple has code included with OSX that prevents me from doing so.
Anyone that tries to limit what the consumer can do with their purchases, whether software or what have you, is NOT cool in my book. It doesn’t matter if the the hardware is stylish and the software is easy to use, I’m not going to buy DRM’d music because I don’t agree with the restriction on consumer rights, and I’m not going to buy Apple products for the same reason.
Please don’t even mention windows or mac in any more posts. It brings out all the fan boys.
I care about freedom zero!!!
Freedom Zero is a promise of future gain. It does nothing to solve
your current needs, only those which you think you might have in
the future.
Most insightful bit I’ve seen so far. But I think it would be more accurate to say that its kind of like insurance. It really become most useful when your hardware obsoletes, or your vendor moves on to greener pastures, dies, or just decides to stop working with you for whatever reason.
So how many people don’t bother to buy insurance (unless forced to)? How many people gamble (when the odds are always with the house)? Buy lottery tickes? Its human nature to think that you will be the lucky one.
One more. How many people are of average intelligence or less? For the math impaired, the answer is most.
So should we be suprised that “most” people don’t care about freedom zero? No, we should not. That doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t care either. Far from it.
I dunno, I don’t think Apple computers are as bad as all that. Sure, they could be more open, but come on – the BIOS runs OpenFirmware, OS-X is based on BSD, they’ve switched to the x86 platform, etc.
It’s not like you buy an Apple device and can only run OS-X on it – hell, even my aging G4 powerbook has been re-tasked as a Linux portable.
The only “lock-in” that Apple computers really have is a simple one: if you want to run OS-X, you must do it on Apple hardware. It’s not a decision based on “DRM”, as you imply – in fact, Apple does NO CHECKING WHATSOEVER to prevent wholesale copying of their OS.
Rather, it’s a support decision. OS-X is so stable and “just works” because Apple can support a limited number of hardware configurations.
Freedom 0 is about being able to have software that’s general-purpose: there are no computing tasks that OS-X prevents you from doing, so it’s not violating Freedom 0.
OK, let’s move the argument to cars.
You mean I can’t put in any engine? I have to use one specified by the manufacturer. One that fits? That’s proprietary!
You can, with time and effort, do anything to a car, or a computer, but historically, almost all machinery is proprietary to some degree.
Freedom zero has been with us a long time.
Well, lots of people get the high quality of proprietary software at the same low cost (well, purchasing cost, anyway) as OSS, by stealing it. The same people who would not steal a pack of gum will steal hundreds or thousands or dollars worth of software without blinking an eye.
My personal experience with OSS is such that when I hear someone mention using OSS, I pretty much think “Oh God, you’re gonna be in hell!”. That is due to my personal experience that the vast majority of OSS I have dealt with SUCKS! The software SUCKS, the support SUCKS MORE and generally the attitude of the people providing it is not the same as what you get from a software vendor whose job it is to make software and stand behind their product.
This personal experienec includes development tools, of which I have tried many and the expectations and quality is quite random, but trying to get help for it isn’t random at all, in almost every case it is met with eye rolling (yes, I can sense this even on a forum vbg) or well, what do you expect (um, something that actually works) or “hey, you have the code, just fix it yourself”.
Oh, so to summarize my last post, this basically describes the difference between a product and a hobby, which is ok, unless you’re the poor soul who expected to get a product and instead got someone’s hobby.
Wow, loads of responses!
Seemingly not much too this article, ‘closed vs open’, ‘pc vs apple’, surely everyone here has been through this a million times, we know every last facet of the pros and cons, but it seems for some the bait is too tempting! Just leave it!
oh and apple sucks a big one…
I believe open source is a novel written without an editor. Open Source generates great ideas - it is a testing ground for future developments. However someone like Apple comes in and selectively edits the output to deliver a coherent package. People pay for well put together packages.
Some people have the time to edit the open source experience for themselves (e.g. Mark Pilgrim). Some people choose to pay to have an edited experience delivered to them (e.g. Me).
I would be sad if open source disappeared and I would be sad if OS X disappeared (or severely degraded in quality).
Well put James! Your post is where I was going with mine, stated much more eloquently.
I think it’s the problem of delusions of grandeur.
Consider:
the computing community consists of (my rough estimate) 70-90% button-pushers, and 10-30% “computer people”. By Computer people, I’m counting all the programmers (regardless of language, platform, etc.), networking people, and those curious teens (and older than teens) that don’t know about programming, but like to tinker a bit.
iPhone, iTunes, iEverything else caters to those 70% who know little and want to learn even less regarding computer stuff. They just want stuff to work. They don’t want to have to learn about MP3, AAC, OGG, etc.
It’s also the difference between the person who nukes frozen meals for dinner, and those that spend 3 hours in the kitchen cooking a gourmet feast. It’s all about where most of the population is… and now it’s the nuking cheeseburgers crowd.