On Sep 8, 2008, at 1:45 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Message: 7 > Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 01:45:35 -0400 > From: "Kevin Driscoll" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [FC-discuss] Apple freewashing / astroturfing > To: "Discussion of Free Culture in general and this organization in > particular" <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Christina identifies a troubling phenomenon: > >> .I'm pretty concerned with how successful at "freewashing" Apple >> is as a corporation. Maybe I'm totally off the mark, but my sense >> is that >> Mac has been promoting its products as hip & cool and, somehow, >> ethically >> better than Windows. A lot of free software supporters scoff at using >> Windows but are totally comfortable running OS X, and that worries me >> (because clearly Ubuntu ftw). > > > Apple is in the appliance game. As a whole, it doesn't seem > particularly interested in the kind of free-wheeling, all-purpose > computing that would fit FC peeps. So what gives? > > Is it the apparent ease with which foss apps are ported? Is it the > nice hardware? Is it the not-windows-ness? > > It's certainly not the cost! > > $$$, > Kevin > (Full disclosure, I use a Mac desktop machine at work, Windows for > DJing, and various Linux flavors for everything else so I'm certainly > no purist. Simply curious about the phenomenon.)
Apple management may be in the closed platform / money game, but many Apple engineers (I went to school with several, and met many more at the most recent WWDC) do believe very strongly in free software and open systems. How else do you think "jailbreaking" iPhones is possible? Things leak out of Apple all the time, and one-on-one conversations with engineers can go a lot like the conversation that Bob Parr has with the old lady making an insurance claim in The Invincibles. There are allies to be had there, so I don't think the free image spirit is totally unwarranted in all respects (though management certainly takes advantage of the impression of "freeness" wherever possible, even in areas that are totally not free). Mike _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
