Here I was about to rip into Cory Doctorow for his recent piece on BoingBoing about the iPad but it turns out everyone else has done it for me. Gruber totally gets it,
40 years ago you could open the hood of your car and see and touch just about every component in there. And you had to, because many of those components required frequent maintenance. To properly own a car required, to some degree, that you understood how a car worked. Today, you open the hood of your car and you see a big sealed block and a basin for the windshield washer fluid. You can buy a new car, drive it for years, and never once open the hood yourself.
That’s the iPad.
I’m glad the Apple II+ came with schematics for the circuit boards. I’m glad it encouraged a generation of kids to tinker and explore. I’m also glad that I don’t live in the fucking ’70s and have to type in programs from a magazine anymore.
Doctorow, who I respect for all his work in online freedom, comes off looking out of touch on the iPad. Apple’s platforms are still inspiring people to create great software. iPhone OS may be locked down in certain areas but we all benefit from the stability and broad appeal this provides.