to me, the only innovative aspects of Apple anymore seem to be in the hardware.

anyone can buy Intel chips and anyone can put together a UNIX release.

it just seems silly trying to “lock down” software (it might be impossible?) when you using more or less the same code with more or less the same CPU everyone else is using. what is different, what is unique?

is it true that the OLPC will make “jailbreaking” and OPLC very simple and easy? if yes, are kids that learn computing on such machines really going to put up with Apple’s tactics when they learn how to use Forth on their OPLC?

the kids of tomorrow will create their own simple, easy-to-use software. they will be able to control any CPU. and they won’t need Apple’s approval to share their creations with others.

feel free to delete my comments if you disagree with them.

i wish they would just sell us the hw w/o the os nonsense.

there’s also the ‘meme’ that unix made hw irrelevent. i.e. it’s portability.

apple uses unix concepts e.g. unix filesystems, and unix user-mode progs. they borrow a lot re: “sw”.

if there is anything “innovative” in apple’s “sw” it’s their kernels and to some extent their design sense (=aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly).

the former is not very accessible to consumers. but that could change. to control hw one must be familiar with the kernel. perhaps consumers will demand more control over apple hw, as it’s performance is challenged by other more “open” alternatives. users may want better performance and hence more control over the hw.

i guess there’s a balance between “design” and “performance”. apple *hw* is superb design relative to the alternatives. but apple “sw” and os abstractions are mostly borrowed; the same stuff is available for free from many sources.

As for distributing apps inside a company – there’s the iPhone Developer Enterprise Program which allows you to do just that, given that the company is big enough.

Anyway, the whole idea of the App Store is bent over backwards. What if I want to produce and distribute an app only to the iPhone users in my company? I’m shiddaddoluck. The iPhone platform runs on amazing hardware, but it really hasn’t matured at all, and until it does, developers who don’t want to kneel before iZod won’t feel any intense pressure to write apps for it.