Walled Garden

This is a very cynical and hostile view of Apple fighting for the privacy of its customers. If Apple were prioritizing defending their walled garden over privacy, they wouldn't have put strong encryption on iMessage and other services.

Apple's walled garden in itself is a privacy/ protection mechanism for their customers. iPhones and iPads were made to have the average in mind, so loading bespoke software removes the risk of spyware and adware that plagues devices without these protections.

> As a sidelight to this debate, I want to ask why is it that Apple, of all companies, is the one taking such a strong stand on this issue?

Eh... Because the shooter was using an iPhone?

If the shooter was using an Android device, FBI would be insane to ask Apple to decrypt data.

> At its core, Apple knows it’s a hardware company.

I am surprised by how often I see this statement repeated. No. Apple makes systems: hardware and software that work together. There are exceptions, of course, but to call them a hardware company misses the point. Dell is a hardware company that will never make a Windows machine as good as Microsoft would like them to. Google and Microsoft are now making hardware to go with their software so that their systems work as intended and they aren't at the mercy of hardware makers with different agendas, becoming more like Apple in this respect.

> The twist, of course, is that for the longest time we’ve thought of that metaphor in terms of a firm trapping everyone inside its own systems. That’s not what it means anymore.

That's never what it was about. But cool, I'm glad you're finally realizing the point of it all.

Anarchists want control of the devices. Free software and hardware. Who are these soi distant Anarchists he is talking about?