I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later

Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by zepto on Monday January 27, 2020 @12:45PM (#22161792)

Some weird stuff for him to uncritically ‘stand by’:

If you want to live in the fair world where you get to keep (or give away) the stuff you buy, the iPad isn't for you.

Seems like this is garbage.

If you want to write code for a platform where the only thing that determines whether you're going to succeed with it is whether your audience loves it, the iPad isn't for you.

This is a weird and naively idealistic statement. On what platform has this now, or ever been true? It seems like iOS is at least as close to this ideal if not better than any other platform.

I wish we lived in the world he would like us to live in, but he seems to be out of touch with reality.

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by chacha2 on Monday January 27, 2020 @01:20PM (#22162183)

> If you want to live in the fair world where you get to keep (or give away) the stuff you buy, the iPad isn't for you.

> Seems like this is garbage.

They're called files.

> This is a weird and naively idealistic statement. On what platform has this now, or ever been true?

The web. Desktop software.

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by zepto on Monday January 27, 2020 @03:10PM (#22163304)

You can’t be serious about the web or desktop software.

In both cases you are dealing with search engines, and VCs distorting the landscape, not to mention Google Safe browsing, etc.

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by virtualritz on Monday January 27, 2020 @01:51PM (#22162502)

> This is a weird and naively idealistic statement. On what platform has this now, or ever been true?

Any computer I grew up with C64, Amiga, Atari, PC) was like this. My friends and I swapped floppy disks with stuff we made. Code, images, music. Then came dial-up mailboxes, then the web.

> It seems like iOS is at least as close to this ideal if not better than any other platform.

iOS is probably farthest away from this, actually.

Even on Android I can share some experiment with my friends and they can, after changing a single setting on their phone, install the APK I give them. Try this on iOS ...

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by zepto on Monday January 27, 2020 @03:12PM (#22163314)

We aren’t in the 80’s anymore. Things don’t work that way.

Nobody has made a business that has succeeded by delivering APKs outside of a store, so that proves my point.

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by chacha2 on Monday January 27, 2020 @05:48PM (#22164668)

Epic, Humble Bundle, Amazon and Samsung have.

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by zepto on Monday January 27, 2020 @07:37PM (#22165326)

Outside of a store? What exact ‘businesses’ have been made in your examples?

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by SllX on Monday January 27, 2020 @01:51PM (#22162495)

Cory Doctorow is one of the most consistently principled men you’ll ever meet. File him with Bernie Sanders or Richard Stallman where regardless if you agree with the principles they uphold, there is still a certain admirable quality to the sheer genuine consistency as to who they are and what they represent.

Reading his piece, it is easy to see that Apple hasn’t yet released an iPad Doctorow would like to buy, and I wouldn’t blame him for being who he is. He’s come to market looking for certain qualities in a tablet computer product, and found every iPad ever released to be lacking them. There’s no reason to spend money on something you’ll be unhappy with.

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by zepto on Monday January 27, 2020 @03:14PM (#22163329)

Principles are genuinely great - I strongly respect being principled.

Principles that are not re-evaluated in context with a changing human society, are just dogma. I respect that, but I call it what it is.

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by filoleg on Monday January 27, 2020 @03:55PM (#22163681)

I like the way you phrased the last paragraph a lot. Thanks for pointing it out, as I have personally been struggling to articulate why some principles are not the same as others in this context, but your comment perfectly cleared it up in my head.

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Re:I won’t buy an iPad: ten years later by wmeredith on Monday January 27, 2020 @02:19PM (#22162747)

Sticking to your principles isn't really in-and-of-itself a virtue. History books are littered with lives destroyed by charismatic and unwaveringly principled monsters. I'd treat it as a curiosity at best.

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