
Walled Garden - MBCook
http://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2016/02/18/walled-garden/
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pippy
This is a very cynical and hostile view of Apple fighting for the privacy of
its customers. If Apple were prioritizing defending their walled garden over
privacy, they wouldn't have put strong encryption on iMessage and other
services.

Apple's walled garden in itself is a privacy/ protection mechanism for their
customers. iPhones and iPads were made to have the average in mind, so loading
bespoke software removes the risk of spyware and adware that plagues devices
without these protections.

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oldgun
> As a sidelight to this debate, I want to ask why is it that Apple, of all
> companies, is the one taking such a strong stand on this issue?

Eh... Because the shooter was using an iPhone?

If the shooter was using an Android device, FBI would be insane to ask Apple
to decrypt data.

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mcculley
> At its core, Apple knows it’s a hardware company.

I am surprised by how often I see this statement repeated. No. Apple makes
systems: hardware and software that work together. There are exceptions, of
course, but to call them a hardware company misses the point. Dell is a
hardware company that will never make a Windows machine as good as Microsoft
would like them to. Google and Microsoft are now making hardware to go with
their software so that their systems work as intended and they aren't at the
mercy of hardware makers with different agendas, becoming more like Apple in
this respect.

~~~
vacri
The ironic thing is that Microsoft is pretty universally considered a software
company, yet their hardware is far superior in quality to their software.

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mcphage
> The twist, of course, is that for the longest time we’ve thought of that
> metaphor in terms of a firm trapping everyone inside its own systems. That’s
> not what it means anymore.

That's never what it was about. But cool, I'm glad you're finally realizing
the point of it all.

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mempko
Anarchists want control of the devices. Free software and hardware. Who are
these soi distant Anarchists he is talking about?

