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Comment by whughes | Hacker News Reader

It doesn't matter how open HTML5 itself is. Going "to the cloud" is still a step backward for openness. I'd much rather be stuck with .doc files than have everything stored on Google Docs and transmitted using open Web standards. Openness is more than just file formats. Moving to the cloud is just as big a step back, if not more, than the App Store.

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You know how there is the free-as-in-beer versus free-as-in-speech distinction? I think we need an open-as-in-I-can-build-stuff-without-your-permission versus open-as-in-consumers-theoretically-control-their-own-data distinction. I kind of like having the first type of open around. The second type, meh, whatever.

I make toasters for people who like toast. They pay me to make toasters so that they don't have to deal with the freaking breadcrumbs. The word breadcrumb sort of scares them, anyhow. They don't need open breadcrumbs. (Influential people, including many present here, think open breadcrumbs are a moral imperative. None of them buy toasters. I optimize accordingly.)

On the other hand, as a toaster maker, it is very handy for me that I don't have to apply to a Central Toaster Authority for a Certified Toaster Maker Certificate which will let me check out The Black Arts of Toaster Manufacturing from the library and use my Genuine Toaster Tools (cost $100,000 per set)) to start cranking out toasters.

I get where you're going, but the toaster analogy doesn't work. If you want to sell toasters (or basically anything that takes mains voltage) en masse in Western markets, you'll have to fork over several large to Underwriters Laboratories and go through their approval process.

Yes, but they aren't nearly as notoriously capricious as the App Store. (Perhaps it's just not as well publicized?)

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