I kinda get why people would like mac notebooks, they seem to be pretty nice, but I just can't get why techies/geeks/hackers like the iPhone. Yes the hardware is pretty, but due to Apple's political decisions, it is one of the most closed systems out there - restrictive API, restrictive distribution, remote bricking, no unlocking. Hackers buying iPhones seems a bit like Greenpeace donating money for Japanese whale "research" to me.
Maybe that's why hackers would buy an iPhone due to its "restrictiveness". That's the fun in being hacker isn't it? Breaking into the system and playing around with it.
I'm not saying closed architecture is a good thing and am not a fan of Apple.
But unlocking is easy if you're a hacker. It's the non-hackers that apple is screwing the most.
The point of knowing how to hack stuff in this way is to get the most out of your soft/hardware, not to support the most hacker-friendly company with your completely insignificant amount of funds.
I know you can jailbreak it, but you can ultimately hack anything to do anything (ie, people putting linux on every damn piece of electronics out there).
And yes, it matters a lot which company you support, since not only do a significant number of insignificant funds add up, but you're giving them mindshare and encouraging others to follow (which is kinda the point of pg's mac essay).
Just to give you an idea of why I'm so mad at Apple, the project that I'm working on right now needs a very good mobile component. Android is completely open and lets you do everything you need, so the first version is based on that. However, there can't be an iPhone app because Jobs is a control freak, he has decreed that I should not have the ability to write what I want to write.
So no, I just don't understand why people that supposedly value openness have such adulation for one of the most restrictive platforms out there. The eye-candy isn't worth it.
Jobs is not a control freak. You can put whatever you like on YOUR iPhone. What you can't do is put whatever you like on someone else's iPhone. In that case, Apple insists that you play by their rules, so that their customers can have confidence that the software they buy isn't going to break their wonderful new iPhone. Apple is essentially offering a service to people where Apple evaluates the technical qualities of software so that users don't have to.
If you can't get passed Apple's rules, why should you care? Write for another platform then. If your idea is so hot, you are going to have loads of users anyway. People may even buy the phone you support, just to have your software.
Of course, if what you really wanted was an easy ride on Apple's coattails, I have bad news for you - Apple never gives anyone an easy ride on their coattails... But I'm hardly going to cry a river for you.
Really? Perhaps Apple should try selling their laptops with the same restrictions then?
People may not use the same specific terms, but whether it's computing or politics or anything else, they don't like to be arbitrarily told they can't do what they want to do.
