5 ms·
Alas, a walled garden is not the opposite of freedom. Indeed, in many places, living in a walled garden will make you factually freeer than your fellows outside
by avip 8y ago
Alas, a walled garden is not the opposite of freedom. Indeed, in many places, living in a walled garden will make you factually freeer than your fellows outside.
- fatbird 8y agoThis is an under-represented viewpoint. The freedom we constantly discuss in terms of app stores is freedom of possibility, but it comes at a cost in time and effort that reduces one's material freedom.
- Dotnaught 8y agoYour argument misrepresents the metaphor. It's the wall that's the barrier to freedom, not what goes on within.
- avip 8y agoA wall can provide much freedom, depending on what’s outside. Freedom is a complicated term.
- Dotnaught 8y agoFreedom is slavery; ignorance is strength. You're constructing a scenario to justify an abstract argument. The wall is the only salient feature in the walled garden metaphor. There's no terror lurking outside. If you mean to imply that Apple's oversight has some advantages, such as security, that's a separate issue. In the context of Apple's app store rules, the wall refers to Apple's rules. The absence of those rules does not reduce your freedom as a developer; you're can still abide by them without Apple requiring your to do so. But you have more choice without the rules.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mattkevan 8y agoFreedom without boundaries and trust isn’t freedom but anarchy. A game is only a game if all the players have a shared set of rules and can trust each other to stay within them. As soon as someone breaks the rules the game is over, and the freedom provided is lost.
- ilikehurdles 8y agoBoth of these points are wrong.
- mattkevan 8y agoThanks for the constructive criticism.
- wool_gather 8y agoParticularly in this case we should note that while there may be lost freedom for some developers, there is an increase in freedom for some users. They gain the freedom to explore the wares available in the app market without spending (as much) time worrying about bad actors.
- lvs 8y agoI think you're extending an analogy to a philosophical place it doesn't go: from a "walled garden" to "the rule of law in a free society." There are a variety of features of the latter that are not inherent in the former. For example, justice in a free society should not be arbitrary and capricious. It should be fair and equal, and applied with discretion. A society where minor rules are difficult to understand but are enforced to the maximum extent is a tyranny.
- richev 8y agoDoesn't it depend on the size of the garden, and the diversity within?