[corrral]

What's getting screwed up? It's cheaper and easier than ever to acquire a wide-open computer platform. There are also more of them than ever. There's just also a couple new categories of computing appliance—which is nowhere near being a new thing—that weren't around before.

[josephcsible]

> There are also more of them than ever.

This is super misleading. There's only slightly more wide-open platforms now than there ever were, but there's way, way more locked-down ones.

> There's just also a couple new categories of computing appliance

A couple?

[corrral]

> A couple?

Yeah, I'm counting phones and tablets as two categories. But I'm also being really generous on how old something can be and still be "new" (15 years is quite a while, in tech) and not counting those as just an iteration (admittedly, a big one) on PalmOS devices and such. They're also much closer to being general-purpose devices than most other appliance-type machines (consoles, dedicated set-top boxes, et c.), occupying more of a middle ground between the two.

I suppose you could add smart watches and make it three. Set-top boxes are at least 23 years old (TiVo), so stretch even generous definitions of "new", and we had closed-source non-user-modifiable DVD players well before that.

[fartcannon]

Phones and tablets are just locked down computers, not appliances. Do you want your laptop to be like that? Why not? Why is that any different than your tablet? Spoiler: It's not.

Some people only have access to tablets and phones. Let them have the freedom we had to create something. With that freedom, maybe one of them grows up and creates the next Apple, only without the cruelty and greed.

On top of that, it would reduce waste.

[corrral]

Again: it is cheaper and easier than ever to get a "real" computer. They're at thrift stores for like $50-100, with peripherals. Raspberry Pi alone has sold over thirty million units. If a bright kid with a good idea asked for one on HN I bet a dozen people would ship their extras to them for free. Computers are given away for free pretty regularly on Craigslist and Facebook and such. Old but functional laptops can be had for tens of dollars on Ebay. It is wildly easier and cheaper to get into personal computing now than it was in the 80s, 90s, or even 00s. You can literally afford it by collecting loose change for a little while. A month of half-decent Internet service may well cost more than your entire computer set-up. This has been the consistent trend and it shows no sign of reversing, even after 15 years of iPhoneOS/iOS.

> the next Apple, only without the cruelty and greed.

Sigh. Well, never mind, I'm out.

[fartcannon]

But why is it necessary? It's not. We can have more if we work together, instead of against each other. The only thing locking phones down does is make everything worse _just_ for Apples sole profit.

And cheers bud, see yah round.