The Legacy Of Steve Jobs

Authors Jason Self

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The Legacy Of Steve Jobs Home

Steve Jobs didn't invent the computer, or the cell phone, or the portable music player, Linux-libre
but he did help to make them popular. He wasn't the first to use software to turn those
devices into a jail, but he was the first to make it cool to be in jail.
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Steve Jobs was no friend of the computer user: Most people think that the products
they buy should obey them, not someone else, but the Digital Restrictions How To
Management (DRM) found in most of Apple's devices and software takes the control
of the product's functionality out of the hands of the owner, overriding it and bending it Articles
to the will of someone else. Everyone deserves the freedom to do what they want with
the things that they buy, but Steve made it cool to give that up. RSS Feed
Everyone deserves to have control over their own computers. They should have the
freedom to run their programs (or "Apps" in Apple's lingo) to do whatever they want, to About Me
study and learn from them, and to be able to modify and distribute them so that
everyone can benefit. If you can't run them for any purpose that you want, if you can't Contact Me
study and modify them that they do (or don't do) whatever you want, then who is your
computer really taking its orders from? Certainly not you, which is where the control GPL enforced
needs to be. If your computer isn't controlled by you then it's controlled by someone
else. Since our lives are so dependent on technology today, the question of who
controls the technology is really just another way of asking who control us. Without If you appreciate any of the things I
this control you're essentially subjugated and, just like DRM, Steve made people think am doing you can make a donation.
this was cool.

I think that will be Steve's longest lasting legacy: That he made millions of people think
it was cool to give up their freedom and control over the technology in their lives in
exchange for proprietary, DRM-encumbered, user-subjugating devices and software.