The Free Software Foundation's Reaction to the iPad Launch

http://www.fsf.org/news/ibad_launch

by doki_pen • 16 years ago

118 52 16 years ago

adatta02• 16 years ago

And does anyone who is actually going to buy the iPad care? Of course not.

Exactly that's why we should concentrate efforts on building up free alternatives. It's not that music discs, printed books and movie theater tickets were free before the advent of the PC. I believe the most important breaktrough for freedom (in regards to IT) is the personal cloud (or the houshold/street cloud).

fauigerzigerk6• 16 years ago

A better question would be whether Apple's increasingly laughable control freakery puts any potential buyers off. I know it does because I am such a potential buyer.

dpcan• 16 years ago

I don't think it does. I am a potential buyer, and I could care less about the "openness" of the product.

I actually see it as a good thing more than bad however. With a PC, every time I run a new program, or get an upgrade, buy a new device, etc, I never know what to expect. With Apple, there's no question. It almost feels "safe".

ubernostrum2• 16 years ago

Doesn't put me off one bit, and I'd imagine that the number of people who'd (A) actually understand the issues you're complaining about and (B) actually agree with you enough to stop buying from Apple is nowhere near enough to make a dent in any product they release.

(I'll probably still wait for the second-generation version, though, just like I did with the iPhone)

tedunangst• 16 years ago

Somewhere in the depths of their evil corporate headquarters, Apple has a spreadsheet with 3 cells. One is labeled "People who buy devices if they are really easy to use". Another is labeled "People who don't buy devices unless they can replace all of its software". And the third cell is labelled "The greater of cell 1 and cell 2".

Vitaly• 16 years ago

As the Android's apps market clearly shows open not necessarily means better, it might just mean messier :)

Yes, open is more 'powerful' and yes, it allows 'more things' to be done, and yes it doesn't piss developers off, but for an average user that just wants to do everyday things Apple's approach might be just better overall user experience.

iPod is not the mp3 player with the most features, its the most polished experience. same for iphone and for almost any of their products.

so .. I'm not at all sure there would be more buyers if it was open then it will be now with its closed nature.

They know what they are doing :)

mstevens• 16 years ago

I may be an unusual case of convergence, but I find both the iPad AND what the FSF say relevant.

I really like the ease of use of something like an iPad whilst getting concerned about the long term consequences for my data.

pmorici• 16 years ago

I've not looked into the details of Steve Job's letter on DRM and the eventual droping of DRM from iTunes but this quote, "John Sullivan said, "Our Defective by Design campaign has a successful history of targeting Apple over its DRM policies. We organized actions and protests targeting iTunes music DRM outside Apple stores, and under the pressure Steve Jobs dropped DRM on music." seems like they are over stating their impact on the issue.

jacquesm• 16 years ago

More on the dbd protest:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/27/defective_by_design/

pielud• 16 years ago

Organizing the protest, Free Software Foundation (FSF) operations manager John Sullivan said, "Our Defective by Design campaign has a successful history of targeting Apple over its DRM policies. We organized actions and protests targeting iTunes music DRM outside Apple stores, and under the pressure Steve Jobs dropped DRM on music..."

Yeah, I'm sure that's why they dropped DRM from the iTunes store.

edit: formatting.

pauljonas• 16 years ago

God bless Richard Stallman!

CrazedGeek• 16 years ago

Do we have any confirmation that you can't put non-iBookstore books on the iPad?

I'm not really sure why Apple putting DRM on media they sell is an issue as long as they also allow non-DRM'd stuff to work just as well.

pchristensen• 16 years ago

I don't know why anyone expects they will be allowed to do that. Music is a form of digital IP that had already descended into lawlessness by the time the iPod came along. Movies (because until recently they were too big to download) and eBooks (because until recently there was no convenient way to read them) can still be "controlled" (controlled meaning continue to generate significant revenue for incumbents). Between Kindle and iPad, in 5 years most normal people will have a benchmark in their head that an ebook is "supposed" to cost ~$10 and they will be ok with it. Letting anyone load eBooks onto the iPad risks putting the publishing industry where the music industry is now.

scott_s• 16 years ago

The major difference is that there are many books that people will want to read that are in the public domain. Also, as far as I know, their book-reading competitors (Kindle, Nook) allow un-encumbered ebooks.

joubert2• 16 years ago

There's the Stanza app that can download Project Gutenberg books... Presumably that will continue to work on the iPad...

zzzmarcus• 16 years ago

Stanza is great, there is also GoodReader for PDF's, Wattpad, Amazon's Kindle app and the Barnes and Noble reader among others. Some of them have their own DRM, but there is definitely still choice.

cmelbye• 16 years ago

Yeah, there are currently a ton of great ebook apps like Kindle and other ones for viewing documents like PDFs, and I'm sure an iPad optimised version is coming soon from the majority of them. I don't think we need to worry about iBooks DRM. The only real problem is the software/app issue in my opinion, but jailbreaking somewhat solves that for people tech-savvy enough to do it.

lukifer• 16 years ago

Since the iPad can use existing iPhone apps, and other e-readers and dedicated eBook apps abound in the App Store, there will definitely be ways to buy books from other sources, or load unrestricted RTFs/PDFs/etc. I wouldn't put it past Apple to specifically block them, but I don't think they will.

philwelch• 16 years ago

iPad uses the ePub eBook format, which is free and open and does not require DRM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB

houseabsolute• 16 years ago

I wonder if anyone at the FSF realizes how unprofessional their iPad -> iBad conversion and other similar slogans sound. It makes it hard to take them seriously.

DannoHung• 16 years ago

Yep, basically, it makes me want to be childish and support closed software simply because of how simperingly idiotic they come across as.

Virax• 16 years ago

Upvoted for vocab :)

TallGuyShort• 16 years ago

I agree. I mean, I totally support what the FSF stands for, but specifically calling out certain products make me want to say "So don't buy one then!" I think all too often we complain about the ethics of companies, but don't actually care enough to change our lifestyle so as not to support them.

RyanMcGreal2• 16 years ago

Um, the FSF is precisely challenging you to change your lifestyle so as not to support companies whose ethics are troublesome.

drinian• 16 years ago

As a FSF member, I can tell you that their entire (print!) newsletter has the tone of a DPRK press release. Interestingly, the last actual piece that I read by RMS was considerably more reasonable -- it concerned the licensing of Javascript AJAX code running on your local machine.

kaens• 16 years ago

This is really frustrating. I'm more-or-less idealogically aligned with the FSF, but feel like they've been doing more harm than good for a bit, especially as far as how these ideals are perceived goes.

I think they need a nice healthy dose of pragmatism, but I can't think of an effective way for them to get it.

This problem is common to groups of people aligned with more fringe or extreme ideals, and it's really annoying to deal with.

wingo• 16 years ago

Much respect for their work, but the FSF really needs to tone down the puns. "iPad is iBad"? Really?

va_coder• 16 years ago

They should stop complaining and release an UbuntuPad!

eru• 16 years ago

Or rather a gnuPad. (Ubuntu and the FSF don't share organizational structures.)

dangrover• 16 years ago

This sounds incredibly snarky, but I always feel conflicted on this sort of thing. I like free software a lot and identify philosophically with the movement, but I also like high-quality software that actually works and is designed for real people.

rapind2• 16 years ago

Sounds like you're saying free software isn't quality software.

Some of the most robust, secure, and least-surprise software is free.

Can't have the good without the bad.

juliend2• 16 years ago

http://i.imgur.com/nUtZK.jpg

rimantas2• 16 years ago

Wow, how wrong that picture is. There are lots of free applications for Mac and iPhone (and now iPad).

iTunes has a nice way to share your library, and you can basically drag and drop music from other computer onto yours.

"Remotely disable your apps and media" — did that happen to anyone?

In other words: FUD.

duskwuff• 16 years ago

"Remotely disable your apps and media" — did that happen to anyone?

Users who downloaded applications which Apple later pulled from the store (e.g, NetShare) specifically reported that the app continued to work on their phone. If Apple does have the ability to remotely disable applications and/or media, they have made a point (so far) of not exercising it.

potatolicious• 16 years ago

Apple has zero restrictions about open source code running on iPhone - the poster is incorrect. Also, music sharing is entirely possible, just don't expect it to be supported as part of the first-party pipeline... the dev license itself doesn't prevent you (unless your purpose is to illegally share).

jsz0• 16 years ago

The FSF has their own ideology they want you to follow -- Apple, specifically Steve Jobs, has an ideology he wants you to follow. As a consumer I don't see an OSS iPad alternative that has the same features & quality so my choice is pretty easy. If the FSF, and others, want to promote OSS/DRM free devices they need to step it up and offer real quality alternatives.

kprobst• 16 years ago

Steve Jobs doesn't want you to follow an ideology. He wants you to buy his products. Don't confuse the two things.

whalesalad• 16 years ago

Let's not forget that Apple is revolutionizing the world. Even if their products are bad for consumers in that they restrict with DRM, have higher costs, use proprietary technology, etc... they are sparking a huge huge change in the world of technology. Android is a great example of this.

This is the good ol' military industrial complex but in a consumer electronics sense. Companies are competing and innovating, and we have to thank Apple for much of that. In the end we are the people who will benefit, with lower cost devies and better software. Even the carriers are attacking each other now on prices for the best 3G network (VZW & ATT).

UpFromTheGut• 16 years ago

Even though I don't own any Apple products, I'm still glad they are around for this reason. More competition in the marketplace is good for me, the consumer, which should go without saying.

However, I'm not sure Android is a good example of your point. I think Android had been in the works for many years before the iphone was released (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Hist...). In fact, Apple multi-touch patents are holding it back at the moment.

alain94040• 16 years ago

Here's where the FSF errs:

All media in the iTunes store (with the one exception of music) is DRM: well, I'd say music is one giant exception, since that's what 90% of its users buy from that store.

All applications must be signed by Apple, an unprecedented level of control for a general purpose computer: that's the point, it's not meant to be a general purpose computer, it's meant to be a device that lets you browse the web, read books and watch movies.

jff• 16 years ago

iPad = iBad? Have they been getting slogan advice from PETA or something?

The Free Software Foundation's Reaction to the iPad Launch

Related Stories