02.19.09
Gemini version available ♊︎‘Open’ Apple
Apple’s openness (or lack thereof) is a subject we explored before, so old references need not be repeated. However, a couple of new reports are worth special emphasis even if they don’t fit the main theme of this Web site.
The first: Apple Rejects South Park iPhone App
The creators of South Park are the latest developers to have an iPhone application rejected for Apple’s app store. The app would have allowed iPhone users to access episode clips, read South Park news, grab wallpaper and other South Park-related features. In a blog post yesterday on SouthParkStudios.com, the creators explained that Apple had rejected the post because it might be “potentially offensive.”
Addressing another Draconian issue, Even the ‘angels’ of Mozilla join the protest against Apple’s practices on the iPhone:
Skype and Mozilla have thrown their weight behind the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in that digital-freedom organization’s fight to loosen the Digital Millenium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) restrictions on iPhone jailbreaking.
It’s worth adding that a lot of Mozilla employees are Mac users.
“It’s nothing to do with prejudice against brand names.”Apple can do a lot to help Free software and thus enjoy a reciprocal, symbiotic relationship, so why is it attacking Linux-based gadgets using iPhone patents? This means not only that Apple’s customers get abused; Even those who advocate and defend freedom are bound to suffer from Apple’s wrath, whether or not they are actual customers of Apple which ought to be irrelevant.
As a side note, we find that critics of Novell, including Sam Varghese for example, are being attacked for justified convictions*. In feedback on Sam’s latest article, one person starts with “It looks like the editor of this article has hatred against Novell” and another starts with “Looks the writer seems to hate Novell a lot.”
Liking Freedom does not mean “hating” anyone. It’s not about hatred and this stereotype is related to the "Microsoft hater" label, which renames merely hatred of criminal activity. It’s nothing to do with prejudice against brand names.
“Makes sense,” says Boycott Novell’s MinceR, “if someone likes freedom, they probably oppose those who want to take it away.” █
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* Let us remember that Novell is anonymously responding to Novell critique, including that of Boycott Novell.
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mcinsand said,
February 20, 2009 at 7:58 am
As much as I loathe Windows, I am still glad that MS won out over Apple; MS is far, far more open to choice than Apple, or so they were when the market was competitive. Probably the main reason that they fear open principles so much now is that they remember how they used interoperability to attack the competition back in the ’80′s and ’90′s. Word handled WordPerfect files better than WordPerfect, and Excel handled 1-2-3 files better than Lotus. Enter this decade, when I have had OpenOffice handle Word 2003 files better than Word 2003. By pursuing an insanely megalithic software architecture, they have guaranteed problems, insecurity, and instability. Without vendor lock-in, MS is doomed. At this point in time, I’m not sure that remodularizing their software would help, since FOSS is so very far ahead; MS would need years to tie up loose ends.
mc