I don’t use the iPhone. I use a Droid Incredible (P.S. A Droid Incredible commercial came on the TV JUST as I wrote that sentence. Wow!). But being the apple lover I am, I get asked why I don’t use the iPhone daily. But here’s why.
I believe that computers in general started as a hobby. People could do whatever they wanted to do with their computers. People wrote code and embedded it into chips however they wanted to. The point behind the computer was that people could create electronic devices that could do things that people never imagined.
But to bring this to more than nerds in a garage, it had to be commercialized.
I have no problem with commercialization, but I have a problem with being selfish with your software. Keeping it to yourself for you to have fun with, and not sharing with others. That’s not how my mom taught me to be.
Android is open-source. This means that anyone (even if you are in a garage) can take what google has created and play with it. Mess it up. Make it better. Google is sharing.
Now Apple on the other hand, starts a lawsuit whenever someone uses their software. Psystar, for example. If you’ve never heard of them it’s not a big surprise. Psystar was a manufacturer of PCs that came with OS X preinstalled. And Apple decided to grab it back out of their hands and would you look at that, Psystar is gone.
And it is the exact same story with the iPhone OS. You will never find customized versions of the OS that you can install. You can tweak your current one with a couple of themes but you will never find a customized version of the OS. And if you do, make sure you don’t tell apple.
There are many many many different twists on the Android OS. One of the most popular ones would be Cyanogen, which is Android with some cool tweaks. It can be installed by rooting your phone, downloading an app from the official Android Market, downloading the ROM, and clicking install. Things will flash, files will move, and time will pass. But in the end, your phone is running a completely overhauled android OS. Now google recently got upset with Cyanogen, but the reason was because Cyanogen was including Google’s apps with it (Market, Maps, Navigation, etc.). Now it is disappointing that I can no longer download apps from the Android Marketplace when using Cyanogen, but at least cyanogen is available to download and install at will (without google’s apps, of course). Even though google is now keeping a little for itself, it is still sharing. And I like to see people share.
Open doesn’t necessarily make a better product though. Tge majority of people prefer simplicity and ease of use over open source. Open source is only something nerds in a garage care about. 🙂
In this society, yes. The actal workings of technology are now unknown. Peopl have no idea how a touchscreen works. What a “programming language” is. If people knew what they are paying for and using and how the market is supported and what it means to the industry people would think twice before buying an iPhone. Yes, simplicity is key, and iOS has managed to be Dirt-simple. I just don’t like how apple is keeping simplicity to themselves, and i sure the other nerds in garages would agree. 😉
don’t you think it can get”to” open? I mean that’s like making it so there is no law and if so people would just kill each other when they got pissed off. Besides Google doesn’t even support what it was built on Net Neutrality and if they agree with Verizon and AT&T then we’re all screwed. Android was just built and I mean they just did it so they violated the three biggest software companies in the world’s patents: Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle, this has gotten to the point were Microsoft has to forcefully sue it’s own OEM and Apple and Microsoft had to sue HTC and HTC is an incredible handset maker and if Oracle sued they’ed by done for and that would be really sad. Google wants Net Neutrality too and imagine how much closed that would make Android, Google isn’t sharing they’re closing and that’s makes you think Google is a greedy company and they really don’t care anymore, This gets to the point were it’s actually scary, and openness is bad but, closed is still very limited, Google is a hypercritical company that’s just interested in Money know.
Well, this is software, not lives. Computers were created on the basis of no rules. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with commercialization, I just think there is something wrong with commercialization AND closing things up.