It took about half a million gallons of oil spilled on the gulf, and the release of Froyo, but Adobe and Apple are finally hugging it out. So of course it’s time for my timely thoughts on the subject. But first, some disclaimers.
I’m a big fan of Apple—no secret there. I touch my MBP before my first cup of coffee. Second, I think flash can die a slow, painful death. I’d have removed flash from my computer long ago, if it weren’t for that whole “Internet” thing. And third, perhaps most important, I’m a big fan of both standards and “Open”. So when Steve Jobs gave “open” and ’standards” as his arguments for not supporting Flash, I drank that kool-aid, too.
But then it hit me like an (Android 2.2-powered) brick. So here it is:
Apple’s whole rhetoric is Orwellian bullshit. It is not “open”. It’s controlling and patronizing. Yes, it’s 1984. Switch to camera two:
In the Open world, we like “free” a lot. Free software, free beer. But there’s a “Free” in the Open movement that has an uppercase F: Free as in “Free Speech.” Free as in “Live Free or Die.” I appreciate Apple’s contribution to the Open Source world, their devotion to
HTML5 and Open Standards. But part of being open and free is giving the consumer and the developer a choice. A freedom, if you will, to choose.
While Apple was riding its “open standards” high horse and claiming that Flash is too bloated to run on a wimpy phone, along came Google. Android is open-source, committed to open standards, runs HTML5 just fine, thanks. Oh, and it runs flash. And Hell has not, to my knowledge, frozen over. All these convincing arguments Steve Jobs put forth in his “open letter”? Not so convincing any more. Except of course for the whole “internet” thing: Let’s call it by its real name: porn.
While Apple doesn’t want you sullying its precious hardware with porn (or political campaigns, but that’s a different story), millions of open-source, open-standards geeks around the world are now able to happily surf porn on their Androids.
So, to sum up: Apple is Orwellian, Adobe is in the sidelines, and “open” means letting people watch their porn.
It took about half a million gallons of oil spilled on the gulf, and the release of Froyo, but Adobe and Apple are finally hugging it out. So of course it’s time for my timely thoughts on the subject. But first, some disclaimers.
I’m a big fan of Apple—no secret there. I touch my MBP before my first cup of coffee. Second, I think flash can die a slow, painful death. I’d have removed flash from my computer long ago, if it weren’t for that whole “Internet” thing. And third, perhaps most important, I’m a big fan of both standards and “Open”. So when Steve Jobs gave “open” and ’standards” as his arguments for not supporting Flash, I drank that kool-aid, too.
But then it hit me like an (Android 2.2-powered) brick. So here it is:
Apple’s whole rhetoric is Orwellian bullshit. It is not “open”. It’s controlling and patronizing. Yes, it’s 1984. Switch to camera two:
In the Open world, we like “free” a lot. Free software, free beer. But there’s a “Free” in the Open movement that has an uppercase F: Free as in “Free Speech.” Free as in “Live Free or Die.” I appreciate Apple’s contribution to the Open Source world, their devotion to HTML5 and Open Standards. But part of being open and free is giving the consumer and the developer a choice. A freedom, if you will, to choose.
While Apple was riding its “open standards” high horse and claiming that Flash is too bloated to run on a wimpy phone, along came Google. Android is open-source, committed to open standards, runs HTML5 just fine, thanks. Oh, and it runs flash. And Hell has not, to my knowledge, frozen over. All these convincing arguments Steve Jobs put forth in his “open letter”? Not so convincing any more. Except of course for the whole “internet” thing: Let’s call it by its real name: porn.
While Apple doesn’t want you sullying its precious hardware with porn (or political campaigns, but that’s a different story), millions of open-source, open-standards geeks around the world are now able to happily surf porn on their Androids.
So, to sum up: Apple is Orwellian, Adobe is in the sidelines, and “open” means letting people watch their porn.
