[Discuss] (OT) Steve Jobs 1955-2011

[jonathan at jonmasters.org (Jon Masters)]

On Thu, 2011-10-06 at 10:19 -0400, Matthew Gillen wrote:
> On 10/06/2011 09:23 AM, Dan O'Donovan wrote:
> >> My next cell phone will be an openmoko

I thought that once, then I wanted a phone that made phone calls,
connected to the internet, and allowed me to be productive on the go.
But then, I recently decided I've been depriving myself of certain
technologies for 16 years on some kind of utopian ideology that is never
actually going to fully deliver. Instead, I've told myself I can't have
games because they're "bad", and should feel terrible when I enjoy using
an iPad because it's not fully Open Source, etc. etc. And then I grew up
and realized Linux is awesome, but it's not everything in life :) I
would never run anything but Linux on a server, but I use a Mac
sometimes. I think it has a great consumer experience overall.

> > I remember saying that five years ago - kinda glad I got an iPhone now...

I'm glad my girlfriend has one. And I'm glad there's a Linux derived
option for those of us who would like something Linux-ish but that
actually works. I might buy an OpenMoko, but I'm not realistically going
to carry it around with me (that doesn't have to be taken as "I hate
them", because I don't - I think OpenMoko is cool - I'm just saying it's
actually allowed to be in the Open Source/Free Software community and
want a phone that works). As it is, I have to have three Android phones
when I travel in case something happens to one of them ;)

> I will never buy one of those.  The way they treat jailbreakers (sue 
> them for copyright infringement, brick their phones) says a lot to me 
> about what they think of their customers.  For one, I don't want to 
> contribute to financing that kind of activity.

Yea, I said that too. Then I bought several. I use a Google phone now,
which I prefer, but part of me is a little envious of my gf's iPhone for
the overall polish of the entire experience - if I didn't care about
hackability, I'd totally say it's a great choice, which it is for end
consumers who just don't care. Consumers don't care about whether your
phone is blessed by Stallman, but they do care if they can make
telephone calls with it reliably (antenna notwithstanding).

> For another, if they are 
> spending more money and effort on lawsuits than they are on moving 
> forward technologically, well, pretty soon you aren't going to be 
> getting a good value for your money (i.e., a large percentage of the 
> cost of your iPhone will be going toward paying lawyers).

Interesting. From where I'm sitting, Apple make some of the most
delightful consumer hardware available. If that were the case, I wish
they had more money to spend on it, but it's hardly that things are
falling apart over there with the record sales they are having. I guess
they can always sell their new HQ, I'm sure the specially engineered
curved glass they've made it from will fetch a few dollars.

> > Steve Jobs confirmed that you can change the world - I think this
> > is a good thing.

Agreed. Just because we all love Linux doesn't mean we have to hate
Steve Jobs any more. The world has moved on. The memo 5 years+ ago was
"we better hate all things non-Linux", but I think that's 5 years late.