"Did everyone forget that when the iPhone shipped you couldn't write apps at all?"
Yup. And did you forget all the complaints about that too and then the jailbreaking and then the development of apps without any SDK at all? You have to wonder if Apple would have ever created the app store if programmers hadn't done all that.
"Why does everyone act like the iPhone should be as 'open' as an OS on your computer?"
Why shouldn't it be? You act like merely complaining about something should be a crime. If Apple is well within their rights to do what they want with their platform, we're well within our rights to complain about it.
Considering the level of polish on the Cocoa Touch frameworks and the surrounding tools at release I'd say Apple was planning the AppStore long before the mob started RABBLE-RABBLE-ing about it.
Still, I am absolutely not saying you shouldn't be allowed to complain. My point is only that I don't see what there is to complain about. I wouldn't complain about this any more than I would about not being able to write apps for my current crappy cellphone. It isn't even that bad though, of course, because you can write apps for the iPhone, just not in arbitrary ways that Apple doesn't approve of.
Anyway, it's ok that we don't agree -- it seems, at this time, that Apple and I are on the same page... We'll see if things change or not. I am obviously all for Apple being more open in general (having to use a Windows VM to sync my iPod is a huge pain in my ass, for example), I'm just not losing any sleep over it.
> My point is only that I don't see what there is to complain about. I wouldn't complain about this any more than I would about not being able to write apps for my current crappy cellphone.
Really? When I had a crappy cellphone, I complained that the WAP browser was constrained to my provider's walled garden. I managed to crack it enough get out and even write my own WAP applications. So not only did I complain, I did something about it.
I also complain that my stupid DVD player doesn't let me skip over FBI warnings and previews. The fact that it was designed that way on purpose, doesn't mean it isn't something worth complaining about.
I think it's funny you feel complaining about the complaining is important but the original issue is not significant in comparison.
I'm not complaining about your complaining - I don't think you should stop or anything like that. I'm simply voicing my opinion just like you are. It's all good.
On to your points. If I was upset at my phone's browser (and believe me, my phone's browser shouldn't even be called a browser) I would just look for a better phone, one with a browser I liked. Same with the DVD player. I don't think that's what we're talking about here though. It's more like your DVD player vendor was saying "you can circumvent the FBI warnings, but only if you do it while singing the alphabet backwards"... well, if I cared about the FBI warnings that much and had the time to spare and otherwise enjoyed that DVD player, I'd just do it the way they wanted. I just have better (from my perspective, of course) things to worry about than "HEY, they should let me remove those warnings while singing anything I want!"...
To get back to specifics and away from stupid analogies: It is true that I'd prefer to write an iPhone app in Ruby than in Objective-C. I just don't think that my preference is Apple's problem. They're just doing fine without me, after all. This could come back to bite them, but then again it might not. So I'm perfectly happy to agree to disagree here.
So to reiterate. I don't think this is not significant, just that it is not significant to me. I didn't mean for my comment to be taken literally as a "no, you should all stop caring", even if I came across that way.
> It is true that I'd prefer to write an iPhone app in Ruby than in Objective-C. I just don't think that my preference is Apple's problem.
I think we've touched on another disconnect. I don't think it's Apple's problem either -- it's our problem. We're still working out just how big of a problem this is for us. For you, the problem is no Ruby.
> This could come back to bite them, but then again it might not.
I don't really care if it bites them or not. I'm not trying to give them a friendly suggestion. I don't think they care. I just think it's a crappy thing to do.
Yup. And did you forget all the complaints about that too and then the jailbreaking and then the development of apps without any SDK at all? You have to wonder if Apple would have ever created the app store if programmers hadn't done all that.
"Why does everyone act like the iPhone should be as 'open' as an OS on your computer?"
Why shouldn't it be? You act like merely complaining about something should be a crime. If Apple is well within their rights to do what they want with their platform, we're well within our rights to complain about it.