4 ms·
I agree. Since the era of Microsoft dominance, we've done a fairly good job of selling appliances and single-purpose software & services, but I think we've fai
by dlitz 13y ago
I agree.
Since the era of Microsoft dominance, we've done a fairly good job of selling appliances and single-purpose software & services, but I think we've failed to sell general-purpose computing to the public. We've barely even tried.
It's a shame. Not only are most people missing out on the amazing power that general-purpose computing brings, but we're now in a situation where people are willing to cede that power to copyright maximalists.
Arguably, "the coming war on general-purpose computing" wouldn't even be a possibility right now if the industry (led by Microsoft) hadn't raised such high barriers between "developers" and "users".
- zanny 13y agoI don't know about this. Google glass and Android, while not stellar platforms for the tinker, have been open enough to allow FOSS to trickle in around the cracks, leading to things like Cyanogenmod or the 4 FOSS phone platforms (tizen / sailfish / ubuntu phone / firefox os). I think those will keep open platforms for general computing a thing, even when businesses desperately want people using locked down platforms accessing cloud storage and server side applications to maximize their influence.