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"Easy to use" and "not locked down" are two different and potentially competing goals. "Locked down" makes it impossible for even the most technical person to

"Easy to use" and "not locked down" are two different and potentially competing goals. "Locked down" makes it impossible for even the most technical person to do something without knowledge of some sort of secret key. Chromebooks are not that; someone with the technical knowledge can do almost anything with them. They even go out of their way to choose peripherals that are well-supported by mainline Linux. "Easy to use", on the other hand, is usually implemented by removing the surface of possibilities. Having a command prompt pointed at an apt repository that lets you install the browser of your choosing is quite hard to use compared to just popping up a preselected browser when you press the power switch. Pretty much every technology invented by humanity gets better with knowledge and training. That doesn't make those technologies "locked down".

chungy 5y ago
That's a definition of "locked down" I can't get behind. _Impossible_ for even the most technical person? That would mean basically no device in all of history could be considered locked down. A more useful definition would be that a device is locked down when the manufacturer has taken measure to halt users from loading their own software, including their own OS. There might be reason to claim Chromebooks aren't locked down, go flip developer mode on and off you go. As for the iPad case, Apple most definitely does not want you to run your own OS. Older iOS devices often have cracks and ports of Android to them, but that takes considerable effort to defeat Apple's locking down of the device.
- jrockway 5y ago
  I think we're talking past each other. You have quoted half of a sentence I wrote without reading the other half, for example. The comment I replied to suggests "my grandma can't figure out how to install Firefox on a Chromebook, so that means the device is locked down". I disagree with that.

chungy 5y ago

That's a definition of "locked down" I can't get behind. _Impossible_ for even the most technical person? That would mean basically no device in all of history could be considered locked down. A more useful definition would be that a device is locked down when the manufacturer has taken measure to halt users from loading their own software, including their own OS. There might be reason to claim Chromebooks aren't locked down, go flip developer mode on and off you go. As for the iPad case, Apple most definitely does not want you to run your own OS. Older iOS devices often have cracks and ports of Android to them, but that takes considerable effort to defeat Apple's locking down of the device.

jrockway 5y ago
I think we're talking past each other. You have quoted half of a sentence I wrote without reading the other half, for example. The comment I replied to suggests "my grandma can't figure out how to install Firefox on a Chromebook, so that means the device is locked down". I disagree with that.