Well, thank you Apple!
At a recent press event Apple presented a lot of “new” stuff, and as usual Steve Jobs gave the presentation. As I was looking through Engadget’s liveblog from the event, I stumbled upon a quote that pretty much sums up why I’m looking into getting a non-Apple computer the next time around.
Steve Jobs: “Home sharing: we‘re going to let you copy songs, TV shows, etc. with up to 5 computers in your house.” (Emphasis mine.)
Well, thanks a lot. Are you really going to let me do that? Gee, Steve! I don’t know what to say. I can play my DVDs on pretty much any device with a DVD drive without being limited to 5. I can even let friends borrow them without being worried that I won’t be able to see them myself when I buy a new DVD player because it would just happen to be the 6th device to play back that particular DVD. And don’t get me started on my vinyl collection.[1]
I’m not sure I want an OS riddled with antifeatures, where I’m at the mercy of what Steve Jobs and Co. will let me do with my data.
[1]: Irony would have it that in this recent press event, Apple announced the iTunes LP, which is basically nothing like a vinyl, but more like the many failed attempts at releasing extra material in a data track on a regular CD album. So get ready for craploads of cheesy DVD-like animated menus and metric tonnes of completely useless and indifferent bonus material.
Is it the OS or the computer that’s bugging you? Or is it the old Tunes-of-i? (or is it the company producing these products, or any combination thereof?)
While I agree with you that this sort of restriction is, in the end, pointless and annoying, we should carefully stop at killing (not in the literal sense) the sender, not the messenger.
I honestly don’t think the fruit company could care less about how (or how much) content is distributed (maybe discounting their own software, that’s another discussion), but the fruit company only has so much bargaining power.
If other shops apart from the iT-store come up with better deals, then (as far as I know) there is nothing stopping us from adding those deals to our iT library (and adding the loot to other libraries on other machines).
Don’t kill old Herald!
That being said, if my suspicion happens to correspond to the realities of the situation, old Stevie shouldn’t let us know that “we” will let us do this and that–he should come out (not in that sense) complaining that “they” (the Culture Conglomerates) are the ones stopping ALL of us from enjoying our purchases on a numerically limited amount of hardware.
Reality Distortion Field At Work.
On MORE than, “on more than a numerically limited”… Anyway…
It is primarily the fact that Apple just succumbs to the demands of the music/movie industry instead of taking a stand on behalf of their end-users — i.e. the consumers. Look what happened to DRM’d music once Apple ditched it on iTunes Music Store. The industry might listen if Apple speaks up, but they sure as hell will never listen to the consumers. Apple however seems to prefer to bend over for the industry and try to buy the end-users off with a shiny user interface and some over-hyped coolness factor, that’s becoming more and more like a sheep factor to me.
I’m not even buying music on iTunes, but it’s the general principle in it. Apple produces software — that I pay for — that restricts my options with my data, which I also pay for (at least “would be paying for” if I bought music and movies on iTunes). So the consumer pays twice to be screwed over once, now that’s an odd discount right there.
As for OS X as an OS. Simplicity must be the main keyword for OS X, but I’m a power-user and I don’t need simplicity. I can set up my Linux desktop to be simple in my way as opposed to the One Apple Way. (You see what I did there?)
OS X also “Just Works[tm]“. For the most part, Linux also Just Works for me, while it may need the odd 30m–4h rescue session because of a botched beta-upgrade or something, but hey, running a beta is my choice and if I don’t want to spend time fixing it I shouldn’t spend time breaking it in the first place, right? Switching to a stable release drastically increases the Just Works-ness and I don’t mind the least if I have to spend half an hour every now and then to make it Just Work in my way. Apple’s interpretation of Just Works seems to differ somewhat from mine in certain aspects.
I might even want to give Windows 7 a spin. Microsoft seems to be (slowly) getting the point and Windows 7 is getting rave reviews (for an MS product) all over.