Zittrain in Technology Review: The personal computer is dead

A very well written history lesson that shows how we got to be where we are. Is it too late to change the course or are we doomed to live our futures in a walled garden?

As the author of this article puts it, "If we allow ourselves to be lulled into satisfaction with walled gardens, we'll miss out on innovations to which the gardeners object, and we'll set ourselves up for censorship of code and content that was previously impossible."

I for one, want free and open source software on my tablet computing environment.

The masses don't realize they are behind walls. Those who do know, will find a way to break out of them.

Didn't they make a movie about this?

The masses don't give a rat's @ss about freedom; this is the fundamental problem. Helios is wrong; maybe a small number of those who know will find a way to break out, but most just don't care as long as they can watch their regular episode of Jerry Springer or The Kardashians. People are perfectly happy to be obedient slaves as long as they're kept comfortable.

"Death before inconvenience!"

--quoted by Paul Graham from a neighborhood bumper sticker

Grish, that's what I meant but probably didn't communicate well. Those of us who know we have choices will never be blockaded by only one.

That's so unfair, contemptuous and judgemental. I don't watch Jerry Springer or the Kardashians. I for one will be perfectly happy as long as I can still watch StarTrek reruns and Bill Moyers. ;-P

I see a time when there are all these walled gardens, and lots of people have a device for each walled garden. Then someone comes along and sells a device that makes connecting the walled gardens together, at the user level, not the internet level, and then there are all these geeks that have a free OS that has allowed them to do it like forever.

Actually I remember back in the mid 90s that Novell wanted to set up their own Internet, with them in control, using ipx.

Don't forget that IPX/SPX's preferred datalink layer was Token Ring. Over-engineered and too smart by half.

>>>The masses don't give a rat's @ss about freedom<<<

I have to agree 101 % with that.

The masses don't give a rat's @ss about freedom

In itself true, but it needs nuancing. Most people only care about freedom in area's, where they themselves have a keen interest. I for one care about the broadest possible freedom on my computing devices, but further restrictions on e.g. amateur radio don't roil me much.

While I'm as much a lemming as the rest of the pack, I do tend to look a smidge broader than most other lemmings. Yet, I'm still in the corralled grasslands of Google Android.

r_a_trip wrote:In itself true, but it needs nuancing. Most people only care about freedom in area's, where they themselves have a keen interest. I for one care about the broadest possible freedom on my computing devices, but further restrictions on e.g. amateur radio don't roil me much.

People always care more about things which personally affect them the most. But that doesn't mean they don't care about things that don't affect them significantly. If I read about how some people in Africa are being abused by warlords or whatever, I care, but there's not much I can do about it from over here, and since it doesn't affect me personally, I don't do much about it, whereas if some warlord tried to rise up here in my own town and take over, I'd probably be doing something about it.

I suspect it's that way with many other freedom-loving people. However, not everyone loves freedom; many people just don't care about anything other than themselves and their own entertainment. These are the ones who watch The Kardashians, and judging by the ratings, there's a lot of these people out there.