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Comment by georgemcbay | Hacker News Reader

I think at least part of the reaction to his platform choice is the way he is branding and positioning it. Calling it simply "The Magazine" for "geeks like us" is bound to ruffle some feathers, because there are a lot of geeks out there (disclaimer: I am certainly one of them) who think that Apple, despite their admittedly unmatched ability to create delightful hardware designs, is the primary negative actor out there when it comes to limiting what "geeks like us" are allowed to do with our hardware. And to be clear, I'm not some card-carrying member of the FSF or anything, I think Stallman is far too extremist, but I agree with him as far as Apple's negative influence on computing freedom is concerned.

Had this been initially positioned with the iOS slant it will surely have given the backer and the exclusive platform it will exist for, I doubt you'd be seeing nearly as much grumbling about it.

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>I think Stallman is far too extremist

The more I see of Apple, Microsoft, and others, the less I think so. I certainly don't see eye-to-eye with him on everything, but it's becoming clear to me that we need alternatives that fit his criteria.

Cell phone and tablet operating systems that are completely open, easy to modify (and easy to distribute modifications), and easy to use from a consumer point of view would change my world. I'd use it in a heartbeat, and I dearly hope this is what Firefox OS will be.

I'd like to see a world that's more accommodating for Stallman. I'd also like to see a world that's less accommodating for Facebook et al.

>> "Cell phone and tablet operating systems that are completely open, easy to modify (and easy to distribute modifications), and easy to use from a consumer point of view would change my world. I'd use it in a heartbeat, and I dearly hope this is what Firefox OS will be."

This is something most people would be excited to use. Problem is, it isn't going to happen. I would love it to but look at what happened on the desktop. Mobile looks like it's going the same way. From a consumer stand point closed is usually better - there are fewer problems, better service and little setup. People want this even more on a phone than they did on a PC.

A cheap device with tremendous ease of use and explicit details about security and how to deal with it would appeal to a set of informed consumers, and appeal wildly to a broad set of developers and hackers. I don't see a failure to gain traction among the "average" consumer to be a real problem with execution.

Cyanogenmod should fit most of your needs http://www.cyanogenmod.com

I mistakenly left off a key part-- it needs to manufactured with those goals in mind. Thank you, though. I'll certainly consider this if a viable alternative never arrives, but I'm downgrading from an awful Alcatel Android device to a "dumbphone" (and dropping my data plan) next week.

This is the same Marco who doesn't know anyone who uses a PC to develop. "Geeks like us" means a much different thing to him than to a lot of people.

It is also the same guy able to speak about his server design decisions and for instance about his new SNB Xeons. So I guess even if he doesn't use PC he remotely connects to non-OSX systems. Moreover, I'm not living in the bay area or new york but even where I am, I see less and less PC around me. Myself, I personally use a PC but it runs OS X.

What ruffles my feathers is the name itself--couldn't Marco find something a bit more imaginative and perhaps less pretentious than The Magazine? Or maybe he was aping Gruber with his The Talk Show... Or is it just some uber-geek inside joke?

Ruffle the feathers of those proving the truth in the generation of self-entitlement.

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