The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been challenging Apple to higher standards for quite some time. Carrying the slogan “defending your rights in the digital world,” the EFF frequently calls out tech companies and related policies when it thinks ramifications could be negative for consumers. The EFF challenged Apple to defend its third-party developers against the Lodsys patent troll, has repeatedly addressed the company’s “anti-competieve” strategies, and so on.
In a new post today, the EFF has proposed that Apple let users of its iOS platform break through the “beautiful crystal prison” and have more control over the OS. The EFF also argues that OS X is becoming more of a restricted platform on the Mac, and that Apple should pave the way for a more open culture leading into the future.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently went on the record to say that he wished Apple had a more open approach to its platforms, allowing tinkerers and pro users (like Woz himself) to get under the hood and change things at the system level. There has been longstanding tension between this mentality and Apple’s. The strain is most evident in the jailbreak community, a large group of users who prefer to have access to modify and tweak iOS beyond what Apple allows. Apple is constantly playing the cat and mouse game with jailbreakers, patching new jailbreak exploits while hackers desperately scrounge to find more vulnerabilities for the next version of iOS.
The EFF believes that iOS is a “beautiful crystal prison,” and that OS X is slowly becoming one too:
Apple changed the way we think about mobile computing with the iPhone, but they have also lead the charge in creating restrictive computers and restrictive marketplaces for software. You may have purchased an iPad, but unless you’ve exploited a vulnerability in iOS to jailbreak it, there are many things you cannot install on it. The App Store has thousands of apps to choose from, but your choices are limited to apps that both Apple has approved, and which can function without “root” or “administrator” privileges.
In OS X, Apple now touts the Mac App Store, a similar environment where developers can only publish apps that meet Apple’s guidelines. Apple also takes a 30% cut of all revenue in the iOS and Mac App Stores. OS X Mountain Lion will introduce Gatekeeper, a security tool that will serve to keep unapproved apps from being installed on the average user’s Mac. Apple has already created a safe, controllable experience for mobile, and the company is slowly and deliberately bringing that environment to the desktop.
According to the EFF, mobile and desktop computer owners should be given these 4 rights:
- Installation of arbitrary applications on the device.
- Access to the phone OS at the root/superuser/hypervisor/administrator level.
- The option to install a different OS altogether.
- Hardware warranties that are clearly independent of software warranties.
Apple did not invent the culture of imposing restrictions on what kinds of programs people could run on the computers in their pockets. Mobile phone manufacturers and carriers were making life miserable for programmers long before Apple entered the smartphone market, and writing code for phones in those days was described as “a tarpit of misery, pain, and destruction”. If anything, Apple’s innovation was to show that it was possible to have a computing platform that was simultaneously useful, successful, and deeply restrictive of what people were able to do with it.
The idea that Apple will totally reverse its approach to creating platforms is frankly silly. iOS devices are flying off the shelves faster than ever, and consumers are proving that they want what Apple has to offer: a usable, stable, beautiful, safe computing experience. There were always be power users who want their own “bill of rights,” but you’re fooling yourself to think that Apple will be the company to offer such a thing. OS X will continue becoming more iOS-like, and many, many people will welcome the changes. We all seek familiarity, Apple is providing that by methodically weaving its different platforms together.
So yes, iOS is a “beautiful crystal prison,” and OS X is becoming one. Unless Apple becomes a radically different kind of company, don’t expect that to change.
And remember, no one is forcing you to stay in Apple’s prison. If you don’t like the neighborhood, you’re welcome to move out.
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
19 responses to “iOS Is A “Beautiful Crystal Prison” And OS X Is Becoming One”
I don’t understand this push to force Apple to be something that it’s not. There are other options if you feel the Apple ecosystem is too restrictive. Go with MS or any of the numerous builds of Linux if you want to tinker under the hood. It’s a must to have at least one major tech company that basis it’s systems on security and stability. The “nerds” already have plenty of other toys to play with.
If you want a lot of stuff —> Microsoft
Isn’t that a pretty bad metaphor? A crystal prison would be the easiest prison to bust out of in the world. I think they mean the classic ….”gilded cage.”
Once again. What are these so-called power users missing from OS X? If you have the know how you can still get under the hood and do whatever you want. Did they make it easy for the pretenders that just wish they were power users? No. Which just makes sense since Apple sells to millions of people with all different skill sets.
I personally liked Snow Leopard better,at least i could freely navigate inside and my new apps did not install themselves like i’m retarded.
These guys are still hung up on the past. They refuse to see a computer as an integrated device and insist on seeing it as “hardware” that you “run software on.” All those rights already exist on the Mac anyway.
You can clearly see the direction Apple is headed with this — they have dumbed down Mac OS X to the point that is almost silly. By default, Hard Disks are not visible on the desktop, You have to confirm a dialog before emptying the trash, or changing an extension, and Apple wants you to use a “pop-up” window on the dock to navigate your Downloads folder….along with another 100 things I can name.
There are options. Mac is Mac, you have windows and linux for the other things.
It was creative professional power users that supported Apple through the dark ages and they’re the reason Apple still exists, so don’t be so quick to belittle them.
Wow Alex, you are really ignorant aren’t you? No one is forcing you to upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion, no body is. Do you even know why Apple is starting to simplify its systems? Its because they are getting the tech-illiterate ‘my computer is hot so i took down the firewall’ kind of users that are migrating from XP and Windows 7 over to OS X and have installed Gatekeeper as a preventive measure from these techno-idiots install oodles of virus-ridden tool bars/pirated apps and having their system more virus ridden than a inner-city public access computer. If you are not fond of how Mountain Lion and OS X is becoming then simply either remain on Lion/Snow Leopard or change to a different platform. Dont go on this site and start whining about how Apple is ruining everything blah blah blah
K.I.S.S = Keep It Simple Stupid
If the App Store is a prison, then Cydia is a junkyard. But nevermind that.
I don’t understand why this is such a huge idea. Like others have stated if you want something different, then choose something different.
I do as some of the comments here suggested: I use a GNU/Linux based OS along OSX on my Mac Mini (which can be a pain in the buttocks to install btw). As OSX becomes more and more 1984ish, anyone who is serious about working with computers should have a usable and open (in terms of tinkering) OS as a backup. I can’t be sure that the system will someday be totally closed for modification. I suggest the same for Windows users, but it’s not as critical yet.
EFF lives in a fantasy world, where it believes everyone else should also live, and in compliance with EFF’s ideology.
The EFF like Greenpeace is a FUD spreading attention whore using Apple because it’s good hit bait.
The problem is that Apple would be stupid to abandon OS X for iOS or merge them to the point that working on OS X becomes crippled. Microsoft is doing this now by relegating the desktop and it’s likely to kill Windows 8. Without a desktop you lose the business market, audio/visual market, programmers, and may other high-end users that need to work, not play. It is impossible for me to edit audio in full-screen, single-app mode. It simply cannot happen. I have to move files from app to app because one app may be great for one thing and another for something altogether. This is what Apple needs to balance.