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The Pendulum Swings, Again

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Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#111

Post by TruthElixirX »

pippy wrote: post #108
bad_user wrote: post #22

The most interesting thing about these recent trends is human nature. I remember back in year 2000/2001 how everybody was talking about freedom, open-source and the open nature of the Internet. I remember how the closed garden that Microsoft tried to create was frowned upon. Small companies that were picking the Internet as a delivery platform and using open-source/multi-platform technologies were on the forefront of…

Comparing Apple's walled garden to Microsoft's is comparing apples to pears. Not being able to open a .doc on another word processor is different from stopping grandma from opening funnycatpicsnotvirus.app I like to see things from the benefit to the consumer. Microsoft stagnated the computing world for 10 years by failing to innovate. Apple is suing because (let's face it) competitors are jumping on their gravy trai…

>I like to see things from the benefit to the consumer. Microsoft stagnated the computing world for 10 years by failing to innovate.

Microsoft accelerated computing by 30 years by making computer hardware a commodity in the 80s and bringing it to the masses.

Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#112

Post by dakrisht »

bad_user wrote: post #22

The most interesting thing about these recent trends is human nature. I remember back in year 2000/2001 how everybody was talking about freedom, open-source and the open nature of the Internet. I remember how the closed garden that Microsoft tried to create was frowned upon. Small companies that were picking the Internet as a delivery platform and using open-source/multi-platform technologies were on the forefront of…

Couldn't agree more with everything you stated.

I think we're prime for a change, and as the OP's article suggests, it's coming.

Hopefully it's a change for openness, freedom, and the empowered user. The pendulum will swing in our favor as long as we do something about it and not just "expect" Cupertino to release an iPhone 10 that will be the "greatest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone" (seriously?).

It's interesting to see how Apple is becoming very much like Microsoft recently. The closed (and getting more closed) ecosystem, with additions such as Gatekeeper on OS X ML and the Nazi-like regime in the iOS App Store. The lawsuits left and right, the lack of innovation. Quite frankly, I don't really remember Microsoft exhibiting such arrogance - something you see more from Oracle, but let's forget the Enterprise for a minute.

I think Apple's walled garden is getting taller and taller, but there's a bigger problem: consumerism just doesn't care. The people who waited days to get the new iPhone - they don't care. They just go forward, like a heard of sheep, whatever Apple says, they do. They applaud and are deeply caught up entranced in the "magic."

I don't think (hope) the future of computing lies with Apple, iOS, consumerism, the RIAA, shit bills introduced by gov't to limit the web, and etc. I think the INTERNET is still run by hackers, engineers, people who live and breathe code, we built this thing damn it and we're going to pass it on to our kids, beter, more open, more robust than ever before. The freedom of information, the ability to share and communicate, the ability to create better worlds through software, it's all there - the fact that Apple and Jobs added a golden veil of design doesn't mean it's lost - just skewed at the moment. It's business and dollars, and people like their closed iOS, gatekeeper, iPhone and "the New iPad."

I have tons of respect for a company like Google who try to stay open in the hostile, big-business consumerism-dominated technology sector. They encourage innovation, they want the Internet to grow as an ecosystem, open, fast and easily accessible for everyone.

Technology is about choices and while we're getting less and less from Cupertino with their Nazi-like regime (including dwindling innovation), there is a lot of positive innovation left and right. From Shenzhen alleys producing $35 A-Pads, to Linux boxes like the Rasberry Pi, to thousands of different Android devices - we are prime for change and a breakthrough from the sandbox.

We just have to work hard and do it.

Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#113

Post by gurkendoktor »

RobAley wrote: post #7
kintamanimatt wrote: post #5

Those who lived through that period and paid attention are probably well aware of the ridiculous notion that information flows should be controlled in order to protect the children or whatever the fig-leaf of the day is. Ask the Iranian and the Chinese people how they like their firewalls. Let’s make sure it ends up on the side of freedom and democracy, and not on the side of DRM and other forms of control and digita…

The simplest way is through the use of your wallet. Buy "open". E.g. - Need a new desktop? Buy one that doesn't lock down uefi by default, and runs linux compatible hardware - New phone? Buy one with Firefox OS if you can wait that long, or at least go for one with a stock Android install - New book? Buy one from independent publishers/authors who don't support DRM [1] - New app? Don't use a commercial app store, get…

- When something about Apple (or another walled garden) sucks, generate publicity.

Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#114

Post by anglebaby »

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Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#115

Post by marklindhout »

api wrote: post #46
bad_user wrote: post #22

The most interesting thing about these recent trends is human nature. I remember back in year 2000/2001 how everybody was talking about freedom, open-source and the open nature of the Internet. I remember how the closed garden that Microsoft tried to create was frowned upon. Small companies that were picking the Internet as a delivery platform and using open-source/multi-platform technologies were on the forefront of…

OSX demonstrates the power of design. Apple is a fashion company. Freedom is all good, but not if it looks like shit, and pretty much everything but Apple (at least as of the mid-2000s) looked like shit. I am pleased with the overall design philosophy direction that Unity and Gnome 3 have taken in abandoning the 90s clutterbuck desktop in favor of something cleaner and more fluid, but both are immature. But if they c…

>> OSS is very good at innovation and infrastructure, but is very, very, VERY poor at user experience.

I agree with you here. As a designer, I have helped out FLOSS projects with UX design and usability. However, the environment is such that if you would suggest UX could be improved, the response often is that devs feel insulted because you are dissing their code (which is not the case, but they don't see that).

On the other hand, taking a look at WordPress, they invested quite some time in user testing and improving UX by professionals, and that makes it one of the most usable web publishing platforms out there.

So, it would be too easy to say all FLOSS is bad at UX, but most developers don't even see it as an actual discipline, and hence do not see a problem.

Nicer devs, that's the key :)

Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#116

Post by jiggy2011 »

loup-vaillant wrote: post #91
w1ntermute wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "whole package" is called GNU/Linux, because only the kernel is Linux proper. You'll never hear rms calling for people to call Android GNU/Linux, because it uses different software for that part.

RMS definitely was right to insist on "GNU/Linux" for GNU systems, though: we have proof now that some people who can tell a kernel from an OS can't express themselves clearly when they do need to communicate that distinction.

Maybe it would have made more sense to try and just call it "GNU", "Gunoo-slash-linucks" is just too big of a mouthful.

Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#117

Post by protomyth »

akldfgj wrote: post #94
protomyth wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Raspberry Pi is a board. You don't hand people a motherboard and expect them to learn to program.

Ctrl-Shift-C in Chrome, or Ctrl-Shift-J in Firefox, will give you a programmable computing environment more powerful and expressive than a 20-year old Atari, Commodore, or Apple.

Which means I have to have a computer already which is not < $200. Also, I really doubt I can use Firefox or Chrome to hook up some photocells to the machine and take readings or use the photocells as a musical instrument.

Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#118

Post by gaius »

justinmk wrote: post #79
rolux wrote: post #13

Remember that there are two possible outcomes, one where the internet successfully manages to cause a swing to the edge of freedom, and another where it is successfully co-opted by big money and governments in a concerted effort to give us all a subscription to online Life-As-A-Service where you will be beholden to some party for the ability to gain access to knowledge, information, the right to communicate and so on…

> you will be beholden to some party for [...] the right to communicate This is the most poignant insight in the article. For some decades now, it has been accepted--with minimal opposition--that we are beholden to some party (the state) for the right to travel . Then it is not far-fetched to imagine that in some decades, the right to communicate may be popularly regarded as a mere "privilege" which is granted by the…

That is why the Founding Fathers were opposed to the idea of a Bill of Rights. Because they knew people would come to believe their rights were granted by the document, instead of merely being non-exhaustively listed in it.

Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#119

Post by slurgfest »

api wrote: post #46
bad_user wrote: post #22

The most interesting thing about these recent trends is human nature. I remember back in year 2000/2001 how everybody was talking about freedom, open-source and the open nature of the Internet. I remember how the closed garden that Microsoft tried to create was frowned upon. Small companies that were picking the Internet as a delivery platform and using open-source/multi-platform technologies were on the forefront of…

OSX demonstrates the power of design. Apple is a fashion company. Freedom is all good, but not if it looks like shit, and pretty much everything but Apple (at least as of the mid-2000s) looked like shit. I am pleased with the overall design philosophy direction that Unity and Gnome 3 have taken in abandoning the 90s clutterbuck desktop in favor of something cleaner and more fluid, but both are immature. But if they c…

When the iMacs first came out, they were being lauded for their style. Of course, now that style looks horribly dated.

But people were always praising Apple products as good design, good user experience, even on the stuff we think is old and busted now.

The reason the recent Apple stuff looks cool now is that it is still the recent Apple stuff. In 10 years, it will look dated because it is so stylized, while things which are styled in a way which is 'boring' will still just be boring 10 years from now.

This should be an indicator that making things not "look like shit" is at least as much a matter of sensing or directing the style of the time, as it is fulfilling some objective criterion for good looks.

Re: The Pendulum Swings, Again

#120

Post by slurgfest »

marklindhout wrote: post #115
api wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OSX demonstrates the power of design. Apple is a fashion company. Freedom is all good, but not if it looks like shit, and pretty much everything but Apple (at least as of the mid-2000s) looked like shit. I am pleased with the overall design philosophy direction that Unity and Gnome 3 have taken in abandoning the 90s clutterbuck desktop in favor of something cleaner and more fluid, but both are immature. But if they c…

>> OSS is very good at innovation and infrastructure, but is very, very, VERY poor at user experience. I agree with you here. As a designer, I have helped out FLOSS projects with UX design and usability. However, the environment is such that if you would suggest UX could be improved, the response often is that devs feel insulted because you are dissing their code (which is not the case, but they don't see that). On t…

As a designer, I'm sure you recognize that not all feedback from someone who calls himself a designer is going to have equal quality, and shouldn't automatically get a pass. Also, you surely must know that a lot of design and UX critique is highly subjective...

Since you are here, I think you probably also understand that sometimes a complete redesign amounts to a large quantity of boring work, and that an open source developer might have set other priorities for future improvement, or just not see that much return on the time investment relative to other things which remain to be done.

The word for someone who is really nice to you and changes the whole project at your whim is 'employee' or 'contractor.' If I devised and have worked on an OSS project for years and some guy comes out of the blue basically saying that I should reallocate months of free labor in order to make something to someone else's tastes, can you not see why that would be the sort of suggestion I would take with a big grain of salt?

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