Those petty FSF nerds started free software in the 80's and well, we still have it.
I compile native ARM binaries for the latest Android mobile platform with gcc — a compiler that was first released sometime in the latter half of 1980. Ironically, Apple uses gcc themselves, but they're keen on locking more and more stuff.
I bet a lot that in 2030's nobody remembers iPhone or any of the iPhone applications. You possibly can't even run them in an emulator if you wished as is the case with 80's and 90's games.
It may be really loud yelling from a minority but it's a philanthropic minority that doesn't think in terms of coming years but coming decades. Paul Graham wrote so aptly in some of his essays that nerds sense restrictions on the essential hacking freedoms the same way as animals sense an earthquake or a tsunami. (Or something like that.)
RMS and folks just wanted the old way back. Please correct me if I'm wrong on details, I'd very much like to know better.
Prior to the 1980s, most computing was on highly proprietary mainframes. The industry was dominated by IBM. Consumers (companies, not individuals) could not _own_ their software. It was all licensed product by IBM and the big vendors. Many vendors did not sell, but instead licensed, their machines, as well. It was very closed, and innovation cost the inventor dearly, and made the vendor a fortune.
The 1980s saw the maturation of the mid-size market, the revolution of the new PC world, an opening up of the hardware and software world, and a hugely exploding new user base. The entire paradigm for the computer market changed. Note, though, the tendency of vendors (ahem, Apple) to return to this world.
Anyone who wants the old days has not been studying history.
I've understood that those who bought the early mainframes still did get the sources and were allowed to modify and recompile stuff — possibly at their own risk but anyway. That I believe is what FSF wanted back when software started coming up in closed form. Was it like that?
This Apple agreement is absolutely insane. I wonder to what extent Apple's arguably great software has been enabled by free software. I'm also hopeful that proponents of open source, who distinguish themselves from free software are at least now rethinking things a bit.
Why would they?
Apple aren't friends of free software, they just use Open Source according to their needs. The parroting you speak of does not contradict what you just say.
That said, I hope you're right and people force Apple to loosen the app store licensing agreement.
[1]: 2009 numbers from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
Developers will follow the users, at least initially. Apple delivers the best overall experience for people who don't think of their phone as a computer.
When I get an Android phone next upgrade I'll still keep my iPhone for development.
what's going to positively affect change is android eating apple's lunch. charging 30% for in-app purchases and restricting content is going to seem completely out of line when a better majority of people have phones that are wide open and are doing some super cool stuff because google just doesn't care.
time will tell, but only when the public realizes what they're missing out on and starts to yell about it will things swing back in the developers' favor