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The Un-Internet and War On General Purpose Computers
theodp writes "Apple,' writes Dave Winer in The Un-Internet, 'is providing a bad example for younger, smaller companies like Twitter and Tumblr, who apparently want to control the 'user experience' of their platforms in much the same way as Apple does. They feel they have a better sense of quality than the randomness of a free market. So they've installed similar controls.' Still, Winer's seen this movie before and notes, 'Eventually we overcome their barriers, and another layer comes on. And the upstarts become the installed-base, and they make the same mistakes all over again. It's the Internet vs the Un-Internet. And the Internet, it seems, always prevails.' Thinking along the same lines, Cory Doctorow warns the stakes are only going to get higher, and issues a call-to-arms for The Coming War on General Purpose Computation."
Oh for God's sake... Name one thing Apple prevents you from doing on OS X. Not a feature they left out, not a Windows app you like that isn't available, not a hack to customize Windows that isn't also present on Macs, but something that Apple EXPLICITLY PREVENTS YOU OR ANYONE FROM DOING.
Try it. Try jumping into any market dominated by a/some big player(s). You'll be immediately sued into oblivion, and consumed by the dominant faction(s). It's a crappy time to be an entrepreneur motivated by wealth; the traditional paths to riches just don't exist any more. The only real path to an open market is to release the "product" for free and count on patronage to support it. So, in this article's context, the ability the make one's own hardware using commonly available materials and machinery. Yes, it's not going to pay as well as traditional methods have. No, there is no certainty you are going to recoup your investment. But, you are not going to be allowed into that market (unless you comply with market niche's Overlords) any way; if you try and play by the traditional market rules, the dominant player(s) will ensure you fail. It seems clear that using the traditional market for personal gain is not the most effective choice for a startup any more.
They have to dumb down both of them to control them both. Good for the vendor, but the society?
Me, I don't think a society which manages to make their citizens an interchangeable commodity with a well-defined but artificially limited set of skills that match a narrow range of "appliances" is going to be "cutting-edge" in anything; rather, as a monoculture they - and their "appliances" - will be sitting ducks for the electronic version of Phytophthora infestans just as Ireland - and the potato - were in 1845.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
about what's going to happen when 3D printing and bioscale assemblers hit the mainstream. Right now we're having trouble because the [MP/RI]AA, who represent comparatively tiny industries, are pushing to destroy open systems. Imagine what happens when the Monsanto's and Walmarts of the world jump on the bandwagon because consumers stop consuming and start manufacturing on their own.
I imagine that if we win that battle an era of unparalleled advancement, freedom, and opportunity for humanity lies on the other side; however, the powers that be will not go quietly, and there will likely be an unprecedented era of repression that will only be overcome with a great deal of trouble and not a little bloodshed.
The only way I can imagine it breaking our way without said bloodshed is if we plan it such that it all happens at once everywhere from as many places as possible, using darknets, ad-hoc mesh networks, and other ways to ensure freedom of information and clever replication schemes to make sure you, me, and everyone we know gets in on the quantum leap in capability immediately instead of the usual diffusion model that has been constant in human history. That is, we can't afford to wait the 20 years for everyone to get a computer and online to get everyone's hands on 3D printers; and that means we have to build dead-simple interfaces into those technologies from the outset to cut the learning curve to zero.
We can't give the powers that be time to react. We can't give them the chance to divide, deflect, and defeat the change.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Open computers won't go away
What makes you so sure of that?
We've already got tens of thousands of software patents in the hand of large corporations, EULAs that essentially substitute buying for leasing/renting software, Cloud services rapidly replace existing freer and more distributed solutions (Usenet, email, etc.), and a more oppressive copyright law passes every few years ( DMCA, SOPA, what will be next?). What if GNU/Linux distributors and FOSS developers are starting to get sued successfully? What if they don't have large enough patent portfolios to defend themselves? Fast-forward twenty years and general purpose computer programming or even just owning a general purpose computer could be prohibited. You think that's impossible? Who will prevent it? The Government?
Besides, the less general purpose computers are used, the more they will cost, so even if they don't go away anybody who likes these machines has reasons to be concerned.