[Discuss] Class action against "Secure Boot"

[me at mattgillen.net (Matthew Gillen)]

On 06/22/2012 01:43 PM, Richard Pieri wrote:
> On 6/22/2012 11:19 AM, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:
>> I agree it stinks, but if you refuse to use products like this, you're
>> confining yourself to a fringe, and you can rest assured there won't be
>> enough people in your group to sway the product offerings of MS & Apple &
>> etc.
> 
> No, actually, I don't think it stinks at all.  What you're talking about
> and what Microsoft, et.al., are selling aren't the same thing.
> 
> I've said it here before but it bears repeating: when you buy an Apple
> product you don't buy a computer.  You buy the Apple Experience.  The
> shiny box is just that: a box.  It's the delivery platform for that
> experience.  Have a Kindle?  Same thing: it's a delivery platform for
> Amazon.  Android?  Third verse same as the first.  Microsoft is doing
> the same with Windows Phone and Surface.  The shiny box isn't the
> product.  It's the a delivery platform for the experience inside.  The
> experience is the product.
> 
> Put bluntly: if you want a computer then buy a computer.  Don't buy an
> appliance with the expectation of getting a general purpose computer
> because you'll be sadly disappointed.

I disagree strongly with your last point.  Yes, what Apple or Amazon
/want/ to sell you is "an experience".  What there are actually selling
you is a general purpose computer.  You just have to do a little work to
unlock it (and in many cases, such as modding an XBox, unlocking the
device so you can run your own OS necessarily cuts you off from "the
experience", XBoxLive in the case of XBox).

Apple especially has tried to make it "illegal" in various ways to
unlock their devices.  But they've failed every time.  Likewise with
Amazon's kindle, B&N's nook, etc.

Sometimes it's more trouble than it's worth (rooting my nook tablet so
that I can run the kindle app on it is an example where I spent way too
much time on it relative to the money I saved from buying a 'normal'
tablet).  But that's a personal decision that changes with circumstances...

Matt