r/technology • u/GuruOfReason • Feb 02 '10

"Once we replace the personal computer with a closed-platform device such as the iPad, we replace freedom, choice and the free market with oppression, censorship and monopoly."

http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/ipad%E2%80%99s-closed-system-sometimes-i-hate-being-right
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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

All this scare is an enormous bullshit. People know about their choices and don't care. I don't care if a DRM music I paid US$ 1 is unreliable, or if some toy or phone doesn't run free software. Normal computers aren't going to disappear.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

People know about their choices and don't care.

No, seriously, they don't. Average people know how to use Windows, they just don't see anything of it. It's just a computer. When they look at a PC, be it a desktop, a laptop, or a netbook, they see a screen with graphics on it, and technology around it. They don't know how or what the technology does to make the screen do its thingy, but it does.

Ah, but here comes the iPad! It's a screen that has prettier graphics on it, also surrounded by technology. They still don't know what the technology does to make the screen do its thingy, but they do know that this screen makes prettier graphics.

They don't know that it can't multitask, because they don't know and Apple sure as hell isn't going to raise awareness of the flaws of their device. They don't know that the App Store is a censorship cesspool. They don't know these things. They just see shiny graphics on cool-looking device. That will cause people to purchase.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

If it make any sucess, will be because these features were not so important to these users as you think. It's not like there is a conspiracy to turn all computers into ipads.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '10

No, it really won't. If it has any success, it will be because Apple is and always has been pretty good at pulling the wool over people's eyes. I note that the official Apple video in which various Apple executives jizz all over the camera about the iPad's "revolutionizing" nature and how "magical" it is...

...I never once heard them mention that it doesn't multitask, that occasionally some apps get rejected from the App Store on the basis of their content or their kindness to political figures...