In continuation from the 2-part series on how Apple’s creating truly locked-down, closed computers with the M1 chip, this blog post by a person who is considering moving to a self-assembled PC running Linux, in a quest for computing freedom:
What worries me as much as the end of general-purpose computing for the masses is that so few seem to understand that it is ending. Many are content to use “devices” that are merely stripped-down Internet appliances masquerading as reasonable substitutes for what they have replaced. Has the word “device” been substituted for the word “computer” in an effort to erase even the memory of what we are losing? Many do not understand, because they are too young to ever have used a true general-purpose computer. They have no experience with anything but locked-down platforms–just as 96% of the generation before them knew nothing but Microsoft operating systems. To call this a tragedy is not being overly dramatic.
People find ways around oppressive practices [but] I also know that solutions can sometimes take decades to appear. Whole generations can be lost in the mean time. This is why the trend toward stripped-down, Big-Brother-controlled computers has me genuinely worried. I am not looking forward to a near-term future in which my operating system is so locked down that I cannot install the software I want. Many have already reached this future, perhaps without even having realized it.