I find it exquisitely ironic that RMS is railing on about SJ.. both profess an anti-dogmatic , against 1984 approach.
Both ended up creating uniquely dogmatic ecosystems. One exploited it at an unbelievable commercial scale surpassing the beast they rebelled against ( IBM, the 1984 ad ) .. the other has become a very strange priest who keeps railing on against other churches that spawned from the original.
I personally admire and respect Steve more.. at least, he had and inspired poetry.. at least, he made Jonathan Ive craft a speech of a life-time[1] at the recent memorial.
Well, SJ was happy to put up a "down with the man!" front so long as he wasn't the man himself.
However, it seems from the Isaacson bio that behind the scenes, he wanted control of the end-user experience on his machines from the start. He wanted the Apple II to ship with two reserved expansion slots --- one for a modem, the other for a printer --- so that third-party hardware couldn't screw up the user experience. It was Woz who insisted on eight general-purpose expansion slots.
He's certainly head strong, and there are many modern cases of implementations that he didn't agree to (The app store, iTunes on Windows etc.) But despite his opposition and his ability to prevent these things from happening, he did eventually concede to them, stand up on stage and present them with excited fervour and ultimately sell them to the masses.
I suppose what I'm saying here is that Stallman too is head-strong, but probably needs to be surrounded by a team of rationalists to make his direction palatable.
People talk about Jobs like he was a genius, or the devil, or a god, or some personal friend. He was the head of a company that finds opportunity in tech-stagnation.
Also there is so much talk about Woz, I doubt anyone would really be interested in Woz if Apple went bankrupt towards the end of the 90s.
I admire Steve more; I wish I had some of his talents. I respect Richard more; the degree to which he doesn't compromise takes more bravery than it looks, IMO. He could have taken the easy way out, and been handsomely rewarded for it, long ago.
I can see where you are coming from. Reading the recent biography indicates that Steve had similar bravery chops against compromise, his arena is different to RMS.. but functionally.. about the same ( if not more ).
Of course Richard Stallman does not inspire poetry. There is no beauty coming from him. But you can just be baffled by beauty. Do you see the harm that apple policies (not products) do to innovation? to your freedom? Do you care?
I admire Stallman for his values. I respect him for his perseverance.
if you understand what RMS wrote (cmon it was 5 lines) you can't say they both "profess an anti-dogmatic , against 1984 approach".
jobs used that approach in marketing, for sheeples to buy apple instead of IBM. If you think (not even hard) about it, you will realise iOS is nothing more then a portable IBM mainframe. you pay a hefty price, that no one in reality pays, or you pay a subscription for service, and only run approved software.
people don't buy phone without contract because they can't. The operators would be fools if they made that a good deal.
In brazil it was like that. everyone bought phones along 2yr contracts "because they need to have a plan anyway".
prices were always rising. it was a joke.
then the regulatory agency said that you had to allow number portability between operators and added limits to contract breach fines. lot's of people would change ships every 2yr. or 1yr. or even sooner if the fine (1month) was worth the change in price.
now in brazil you can buy a SIM card in a newstand for US$5. which includes $4.5 in prepaid credit. put into your cellphone, and use unlimited data for 24h for a mere $.25
that would be unthinkable if the operators still 'owned' everyones phone number and hold them for a minimum of 2yr.
i left there on the first year after this regulation, and i was already paying for unlimited data on FIVE lines the same that i'm paying for AT&T in california for two lines.
also, forgot another regulation that contributes to this.
if you get a new phone because of a 1 or 2yr contract, and you stay with that contract for the whole duration, at the end the operator must UNLOCK your phone for free.
Both ended up creating uniquely dogmatic ecosystems. One exploited it at an unbelievable commercial scale surpassing the beast they rebelled against ( IBM, the 1984 ad ) .. the other has become a very strange priest who keeps railing on against other churches that spawned from the original.
I personally admire and respect Steve more.. at least, he had and inspired poetry.. at least, he made Jonathan Ive craft a speech of a life-time[1] at the recent memorial.
[1] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPUsuY8JZJI&t=2905