Exactly. Apple is responsible for a huge loss of freedom in the War On General Purpose Computing. This "appification" is
exactly what Cory Doctorow was talking about in his famous essay[1]. We are already beginning to see some of the nastier effects that we warned about[2] with, for example, John Deere's attempt to retain ownership[3].
Apologists will complain that you can turn of SIP (or jailbreak your phone) to regain control over your computer, but that isn't possible for most people. Installing certain types of software went from "run the installer" to "follow these complicated technical instructions" (or worse).
What I find more worrying is how easily technical people are fooled into supporting this loss of freedom. Scream "security" and suddenly it's ok for Apple to have root but not the supposed "owner" of the device? Of course, they know how to disable the restrictions or install a jailbreak, so these problems don't apply to the technological priesthood - it's normal people that have to live with the restrictions.
Well, this hubris will not last - once Apple can starts using the new Trusted Computing[4] features on new CPUs (such as SGX[5]), good luck regaining control.
It would be nice if more people actually bothered thinking about long-term consequences.
[1] http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nypRYpVKc5Y
[3] http://www.wired.com/2015/04/dmca-ownership-john-deere/
[4] one example: http://i.imgur.com/rjbzWyB.jpg
[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10754170
Apologists will complain that you can turn of SIP (or jailbreak your phone) to regain control over your computer, but that isn't possible for most people. Installing certain types of software went from "run the installer" to "follow these complicated technical instructions" (or worse).
What I find more worrying is how easily technical people are fooled into supporting this loss of freedom. Scream "security" and suddenly it's ok for Apple to have root but not the supposed "owner" of the device? Of course, they know how to disable the restrictions or install a jailbreak, so these problems don't apply to the technological priesthood - it's normal people that have to live with the restrictions.
Well, this hubris will not last - once Apple can starts using the new Trusted Computing[4] features on new CPUs (such as SGX[5]), good luck regaining control.
It would be nice if more people actually bothered thinking about long-term consequences.
[1] http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nypRYpVKc5Y
[3] http://www.wired.com/2015/04/dmca-ownership-john-deere/
[4] one example: http://i.imgur.com/rjbzWyB.jpg
[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10754170