Comment Re:Table. (Score 1) 789
Way to miss it and fly right on by!
What "full control" do you have over your computer now? You use billions of lines of application code, OS code, device drivers, firmware drivers, boot ROMs, and more, all written by people you don't know. Your "full control" is an illusion. Further, full access to the system, for most people, means that they have to pay their annual protection money in order to be safe from viruses, trojans, and rootkits.
Yes, but I can read and modify every line of it if I want to (yes, I'm one of those Linux freaks). Even if I never, ever do, I should have that privilege -- failing that, I should at least have the option not to run it at all. With today's personal computers, *I CAN DO THAT.* But if I don't want to run Apple's code on an Apple device for whatever reason -- hey, maybe the hardware's more important to me -- I can't do that without first exploiting Apple's code. I inherently do not have full control of an iDevice. In fact, I have less control over an iDevice than I do over my personal computer running Windows 7, precisely because Windows -- and any programs on it -- can be uninstalled. Once again, in case you missed it -- I can't uninstall iOS unless I hack it first.
Open systems are no protection. Witness the recent rootkit trojan attack via the "open" Android Marketplace. How are "those devices" supposed to be trusted on a network? And even on systems where people have "full control", is it exercised? Or do 99% of them check Gmail and log into Facebook, all systems controlled by others anyway. How many of the day-to-day applications you use on your computer and phone did you, personally, write?
Again, I have the source code to "those devices". In the cases I don't (proprietary overlays and such), sure, they can't be trusted -- because they're not open, either. At the same time, allowing users to bring personal equipment on a company network is always a bad idea. But company equipment running software where I know (or can easily find out) what's going on is an entirely different matter. And possible, given the amount of rootable Android phones and completely open firmwares.
I do exercise that "full control" every day. I'm always installing or removing programs, making changes, tweaking something. Sure, not everyone's like me. That doesn't mean they shouldn't have the opportunity. You can even have some sane user interface prompt in the way that asks, "Hey, you could really mess your system up, are you sure about this?" Firefox does it. I don't see why it would be all that bad. Why is it reasonable to completely and utterly refuse this control, granting the user zero chance of exercising it at all? Why should Apple be able to run code, stop code, kill code and download code onto my device that I bought, but I'm not allowed to do the same thing at the same privileges? If there's that much a risk of breakage -- and in the case of 100% of iDevices, there isn't, everything can be fixed by a restore -- then void my friggin' warranty. Why are there parties out there able to do things with my device that I, myself, am not able to do, purely because those same parties have built their device to actively resist my efforts?
Anyone who wants to buy a full desktop or workstation and learn to program will still be free to do so, just like you, if you desired, could learn how to fix your modern computer-controlled car if you really wanted to do so. Me, I'd rather just get in it and go somewhere...
And this, right here, is precisely where you completely ignored my post and just flew on your merry way. I said:
The inherent problem with the world actually buying into this crap in a "post-PC" world, to the detriment, of course, to the PCs, is that when the market for the more-capable devices shrinks and quite possibly dies, there may well be nothing left to use but this locked-down Big-Media-friendly user-/competition-hostile Apple crap.
So let me shorten it -- if closed tablets kill open computers, and we enter this "post-PC era", no consumer may ever have control of his or her sophisticated hardware ever again, even if they want it, need it, and/or can actually use it.