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LOL. He writes "You see, it’s all about freedom. Freedom to do things we want that Apple doesn’t think we need to be able to do." Apple was never about freedom

LOL. He writes "You see, it’s all about freedom. Freedom to do things we want that Apple doesn’t think we need to be able to do." Apple was never about freedom. Apple has always been about control. They take freedom and control away from consumers to deliver a "better experience" and charge a premium for it. If you don't align with Apple's vision, you are always SOL. Their whole business model is built on a gamble that they know better then everyone else. no Floppy, iPhone, iPad, no headphone jack... (although the headphone jack is probably a bust)

barbs 10y ago
Exactly. If he seriously cared about freedom he'd be using an open-source operating system.
- roblabla 10y ago
  You can give user freedom to customize the OS in a closed source system TBH. Look at World of Warcraft. The interface can be customized to the user's need, yet WoW isn't open source. And macos is based on an open source Kernel (darwin), and does a lot of open source stuff in general.
  - the_duke 10y ago
    Of course a closed source system can be very customizable, but as OP noted, Apple has never been about freedom of choice. Their whole business model is about locking you in to their products. They are not the only ones who do this, of course. But I also had to actually laugh out loud when I read the whole "it's about freedom" paragraph. The Apple ecosystem is the wrong mothership if you care about these things.
fossuser 10y ago
Yep - and this model generally works because when it comes down to it choice sucks. I'd rather have a high quality thing with good defaults than a thousand different things to choose from. Ultimately the best would be a combination where you have high quality software with sane defaults that also allows a power user to make changes when necessary, but in practice it's hard to do both without tradeoffs that cause you to end up with neither. This doesn't mean I don't like playing around with linux or that everything Apple does is high quality (looking at you Apple Music), but generally reducing choices a user is required to make is a good thing.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- ProAm 10y ago
  > I'd rather have a high quality thing with good defaults than a thousand different things to choose from You're a one off edge case though. There is a line between flexibility and lack of control.
  - simonh 10y ago
    Are all Apple's customers one off edge cases? That's an awful lot of one offs.
    - ProAm 10y ago
      He was complaining about an odd one off edge case of debating that quality must come at the cost of flexibility....
- khedoros1 10y ago
  Given the exclusive choice between the two options, I'd rather have a thousand things to choose from. Chances are that many of those choices will suit my needs better than the one "quality thing with good defaults". I'd consider the "quality thing" as a baseline, or a starting point. From there, if something bothers me enough, I can look for an alternative that doesn't have that problem. If nothing bothers me that much, then I guess that the defaults were good for me.
bootload 10y ago
"Apple was never about freedom. Apple has always been about control." Not so fast youngster. In my PR#6 days you could open the top and add cards to improve your machine. Changed after Woz was relegated by Jobs. Apples historical roots is in open hardware.
- ethanpil 10y ago
  touché
- oblio 10y ago
  So that's, what, 5% of Apple's life? :)
  - bootload 10y ago
    "Apple was ^never^ about freedom." QED.
simonh 10y ago
> Their whole business model is built on a gamble that they know better then everyone else. $596B in market capitalization says they had a point.

barbs 10y ago

Exactly. If he seriously cared about freedom he'd be using an open-source operating system.

roblabla 10y ago
You can give user freedom to customize the OS in a closed source system TBH. Look at World of Warcraft. The interface can be customized to the user's need, yet WoW isn't open source. And macos is based on an open source Kernel (darwin), and does a lot of open source stuff in general.
- the_duke 10y ago
  Of course a closed source system can be very customizable, but as OP noted, Apple has never been about freedom of choice. Their whole business model is about locking you in to their products. They are not the only ones who do this, of course. But I also had to actually laugh out loud when I read the whole "it's about freedom" paragraph. The Apple ecosystem is the wrong mothership if you care about these things.

fossuser 10y ago

Yep - and this model generally works because when it comes down to it choice sucks. I'd rather have a high quality thing with good defaults than a thousand different things to choose from. Ultimately the best would be a combination where you have high quality software with sane defaults that also allows a power user to make changes when necessary, but in practice it's hard to do both without tradeoffs that cause you to end up with neither. This doesn't mean I don't like playing around with linux or that everything Apple does is high quality (looking at you Apple Music), but generally reducing choices a user is required to make is a good thing.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ProAm 10y ago
> I'd rather have a high quality thing with good defaults than a thousand different things to choose from You're a one off edge case though. There is a line between flexibility and lack of control.
- simonh 10y ago
  Are all Apple's customers one off edge cases? That's an awful lot of one offs.
  - ProAm 10y ago
    He was complaining about an odd one off edge case of debating that quality must come at the cost of flexibility....
khedoros1 10y ago
Given the exclusive choice between the two options, I'd rather have a thousand things to choose from. Chances are that many of those choices will suit my needs better than the one "quality thing with good defaults". I'd consider the "quality thing" as a baseline, or a starting point. From there, if something bothers me enough, I can look for an alternative that doesn't have that problem. If nothing bothers me that much, then I guess that the defaults were good for me.

bootload 10y ago

"Apple was never about freedom. Apple has always been about control." Not so fast youngster. In my PR#6 days you could open the top and add cards to improve your machine. Changed after Woz was relegated by Jobs. Apples historical roots is in open hardware.

ethanpil 10y ago
touché
oblio 10y ago
So that's, what, 5% of Apple's life? :)
- bootload 10y ago
  "Apple was ^never^ about freedom." QED.

simonh 10y ago

> Their whole business model is built on a gamble that they know better then everyone else. $596B in market capitalization says they had a point.