I recently read an opinion piece in Mac World written by Michael Gartenberg; Open versus Closed. There were a few items that made me laugh about how much mis-truth and FUD Apple is trying to spread. Here are a couple of choice quotes from the article with my thoughts after them.
In many ways, iOS devices are probably what the people at Apple had in mind when they created the original Mac. These are appliances that can do magical things without the need for a programmer or computer expert to get involved. The Mac didn’t succeed at that entirely, but today’s iOS devices fulfill that dream.
Say what?
I watched these events as a teenager and I thought Macintosh was about having computer for everyone. Powerful simple to use computers that would prevent IBM from dominating the industry and owning the information age. Jobs started out as a computer hobbyist, not a corporate tycoon trying for global domination.
A long time ago, high schools offered shop class. You learned all about cars, how they worked, how they could be repaired. It was necessary information because without it you couldn’t drive.
What? I do not recall any time in history when you could not drive if you did not know how to repair your car. I think Michael might be thinking of one of those Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies.
Open the hood of many of today’s cars and you’ll find vast expanses of plastic, covering parts that are not intended to be user serviceable. Cars have become closed systems.
Really? Certainly they might be more complex, but closed? I can, if I want, replace the factory radio. I can change the spark plugs. It is not closed. No, saying that cars are closed is just down right fiction.
The debate about computers and other tech gadgets — should they be open systems fit for tinkering, or closed that aren’t meant to be cracked open — will no doubt continue for some time come. But I expect it’s a debate that will matter more in the coffee shops of Silicon Valley or in online screeds that few will read and fewer will care about.
The rest of us will be too busy getting work done. We’ll be communicating and collaborating with friends, family and colleagues.
Here is the red herring of his argument. He implies that those of us who like an open system will get a ‘bad’ system. We will be so busy tinkering that we won’t be able to get work done or communicate with our friends. Wait… I am using an open system. I am using Ubuntu and I am getting work done and communicating with my friends.
Sorry Michael, but just like Baghdad Bob you are practicing mis-information. Could it be because the open system, Android, just knocked off iOS in the smart phone race? Could it be that Apple is afraid of the Android tablets due out in the 4th quarter of this year?
The truth is out there though… people just have to go look.
We can have open, productive, amazingly, and magical systems that enable us to do fantastic things with information. All for a lot less than it costs to buy a locked down iToy.
