Apple iPad & the Closed vs Open Source Debate
Cory Doctorow and Joel Johnson are debating the closed vs open source issue with respect to the Apple iPad and the Apple software ecosystem. Cory says he’s not buying an iPad and he doesn’t think anyone should. That we shouldn’t buy devices that force us only to be consumers, we need to buy products that let us take them apart, customize them, and fix them. For computers like the iPad, this means to write software outside the DRM box as well.
Joel, on the other hand, points out here that computers becoming consumer appliances is a good thing. That we don’t want to have to tinker with everything we buy and use, that just being able to use something efficiently and cleanly is a wonderful thing to do. And that for complex devices, locking the design and internal access down is one way to do that. Cory and Joel both are making the issues clear so people have a better chance at choosing the techno-ecosystem they want to play with.
They’re both right in a way. Cory and Joel both are making the issues clear so people have a better chance at choosing the techno-ecosystem they want to play with. We have to make our choices as to what we’re willing to live with. Apple’s created an ecosystem that’s much larger than the device. That they’re able to do this in a closed way is impressive. I’ve discussed that before. When you buy an iPad, iPhone, or iPod you’re buying into that ecosystem. As a consumer that may be worth it to you, it is to Joel. It’s not worth it to Cory. And as a developer there are rules that I have to follow to play in that system too.
But there are rules for consumers and developers in the open source ecosystem too. Those rules are unwritten social rules perhaps, or ways of working dictated by the nature of open source projects: installation, updates, system management. In the end the finished open source product typically requires more tinkering than many would like to see simply because there’s no overriding corporate authority driving a more unified approach. (I’ve used Linux since the mid-1990s, written software for it, and written a kernel mod (a driver). I like it and it’s great for my purposes, but requires tinkering.) Those open source rules more reached more collectively than the Apple ones, but as an independent developer I have as much effect on them as I do on Apple’s rules generally.
Basically, you have to decide what you want to deal with. Sometimes I choose ease-of-use and pay the DRM penalty, sometimes I choose open-source and pay the tinkering penalty. Trying to use either one for everything would be like trying to use a hammer in place of every tool in my tool box.