Apple OS X - Closed is the new Open | Hacker News Reader

Apple OS X - Closed is the new Open

9 pointsneverdull10 comments

The more I read, the more the evidence is mounting that the long term road-map for OS X is convergence with iOS. Not next week, not next year, but it's coming. Closed is the new open, And that's a bad thing for developers and users alike.

None of the evidence by itself is particularly startling - in many cases taking what works for the iPad and bringing it to the Mac makes good sense, but taken together, it paints a picture for where the OS and its eco-system is heading.

First the Mac App Store:

Apple’s Mac App Store Opens for Business http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/01/06macappstore.html

There has been much debate already about what this means for developers, and Apple taking control of what developers can or can't do, sets a new price bar, and gives Apple a chunk of the revenue. So long as the platform remains open, it's still possible to step around Apple, but getting market share is going to be harder. iWay or the highway?

iPad style Launchpad http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/#gallery-launchpad

Just a neat way to launch Apps? Maybe, but its a step to moving Finder (the desktop) to being a second class citizen. What follows that?

Full Screen Apps http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/#gallery-fullscreen

So now we don't need to return to the desktop to switch between Apps. How long before we can't return, because it's not there any more? Similarly, the Four Finger Swipe to switch between apps is coming to the Pad - it's already there in Dev mode.

Apple removes Samba from Mac OS X 10.7 Server http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/23/inside_mac_os_x_10_7_lion_server_apple_replaces_samba_for_windows_networking_services.html

So this is where it gets a bit more sinister. OS X has had Samba support since day one, but with Lion it's being replaced with something developed in house. The reason? GPLv3 and the "right to tinker". If users have the right to tinker, then there has to be a way to poke around the OS to do the tinkering. If you're planning on removing that access, first you have to remove software whose licensing requires it.

And finally:

Bertrand Serlet to Leave Apple http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/03/23serlet.html

Read into that what you will...

Do you agree?

You've lost your mind. Why so much fuss when Apple is simply trying to make their user experience better?

Apple sells into different markets, developers being one of them, and as OS X is the only official development platform for both OS X and iOS then there will be, by necessity, a "developer mode", at the very least, into the distant future.

I am 100% with Apple in their efforts to make installing and launching applications easier. It is embarrassing to have to explain to people how to download and install applications because each vendor has their own take on how to do it, and the whole process is completely mysterious until you've done it a dozen times and seen most of the quirky methods used.

As much as people decry the "30% tax" Apple imposes on sales, I would gladly pay it if I knew my sales would double by going with Apple's distribution channel. This might be because of better placement, or perhaps people being more willing to use Apple's check-out process than something like Kagi which has a worryingly amateur feel to it and would reasonably scare off a first-time app shopper.

It's like we're up in arms because the city wants to demolish a bunch of tin-shack houses, crack-dens, and dog fighting pits and replace it with a mall. This is merely gentrification, not "closed".

If you're opposed to making computers easier to use for the average consumer who has no interest in learning how computers work, what a hard drive is, or any of the other things you must internalize simply to install an application, then you're entitled to your opinion, but don't go stirring up panic.

Just as Apple has introduced drool-proof interfaces before, such as their launcher in OS 9, Lion will have yet another. As before you will be able to side-step it or disable it entirely if you so choose.

>Do you agree?

Based on what you posted? No.

What does a user interface change ("iPad style Launchpad", "Full Screen Apps", "Four Finger Swipe") have to do with openness? That sounds like a lot of the outcry over the removal of the Apple menu during the transition to OS X 10.0 - you may not like the interface change but that doesn't make things less open.

Similarly wrt "Bertrand Serlet to Leave Apple" - unless you have some evidence that he's leaving because of an "openness"-related reason, I don't see what this has to do with your thesis. People leave companies all the times, particularly 20+year veterans.

I'm not sure I follow a lot of your points about moving from an open OS to a closed one, Mac OS X is still very open (http://developer.apple.com/opensource). They blatantly said they were adding iOS-inspired touches to Lion and I don't think this will have any consequences for the open source base of OS X. I don't have any knowledge about the removal of Samba, but I wouldn't get too worried.

As for Bertrand Serlet, his departure was planned at least a year in advance. I doubt it was anything to do with open source or iOS taking over.

I think you're reading too much into it. Apple need a developer community, and the developer community needs a platform to develop on. If not OS X, then what else?

I agree. I'm a Windows/Android user (though not a religious one in either case) who's tempted to switch periodically to Apple stuff. It would all be so easy, it seems.

But the more I play with Apple devices (my wife owns a Mac and an iPhone and we have iPod Touches and a ATV2), the more I realize that I want computers, not computing appliances. And it seems like the future of Apple, even Macs, is in appliances.

Don't get me wrong, I think some appliances are great for some applications, and I think most people don't need more than that, and Apple is obviously doing very well and is going to continue to do so, but it's not what I want.

And there's another component, too: Apple's control over their devices comes with a weird moral component in the form of quality control. Which is fine for some, I guess. Disneyland is a fun place for lots of people to visit, too, I understand. But I don't really enjoy it that much, and I definitely wouldn't want to live there.

Clickable links (?):

Apple’s Mac App Store Opens for Business http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/01/06macappstore.html

iPad style Launchpad http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/#gallery-launchpad

Full Screen Apps http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/#gallery-fullscreen

Apple removes Samba from Mac OS X 10.7 Server http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/23/inside_mac_os_...

Bertrand Serlet to Leave Apple http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/03/23serlet.html

If you have a mac, you can just right click on a url, which osx detects automatically, even if it's not "a href"'ed, and using the easy popup services menu, you can click OpenURL.

how does this work ? I'm using chrome on mac, and I right click on the links provided in post and don't see a way to click ?

Apple is replacing Samba with their own implementation of a newer version of the underlying protocol used in Samba (SMB2) that appeared in Vista.

As a protocol, it's better suited for large file transfers, etc.

How is this possibly a bad thing? I don't understand. This is good for users in every conceivable way. Also, most of this information is in the article you listed.

And so the pendulum swings.

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