On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 12:41, Scot McSweeney-Roberts <bbc_backst...@mcsweeney-roberts.co.uk> wrote:
> Seeing as the first few Macs couldn't even be opened up*, I doubt > Steve Jobs has ever really cared for tinkering. I can remember the > first time I used a Mac back in 1985 and the first thing that came > across my mind was "where's the Basic?". Back then you needed a > $10,000 Lisa to develop for the Mac. I can't help but wonder if Macs > would have been locked to an App Store from day one if networking back > then was like it is now, with Apple continuing the Lisa line as the > astoundingly expensive Mac for developers. Since Jobs' return to the helm, Macs have become steadily and increasingly more open with each passing year, both in hardware and software terms. Remember when the only way to run an alternative OS on a Mac was by booting Mac OS which then loaded a special extension which loaded the alternative OS over the top of Mac OS? > I really do expect to see the Mac line become more and more like the > iPhone/Pad/Pod. If Apple could get away with locking down Macs to an > App Store, they would. I wouldn't be so sure. I think Apple/Jobs realised that they actually *can't* lock down Macs and still sell them. The vision of utility get-stuff-done computing is incongruous with the expectations many people have of what a computer should let them do. Thus, the solution is to create a new category of computing product which pulls elements from both. This way, the new platform can be as locked down or as open as required with no legacy baggage, while the (rather profitable) more open systems continue to sell to those who need that sort of thing. Plus, I don't actually think iPhone OS will remain as locked down as it is now for too long. Give it 18 months. Two years tops. > The only thing I don't get is why people bother to jailbreak their > pads/pods/phones/apple tvs when more open hardware is available. Because the pads/pods/phones/apple tvs are well-designed and do 90%. switching wholesale for the sake of that 10% is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. M. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
