This is why you're going to start to see a shift away from centralized cloud applications like Facebook towards more federated models. The federated model is the only workable compromise between the security afforded by completely peer-to-peer solutions and the enormous convenience of completely centralized solutions. That's why every single protocol still in wide use after many years of existence is either a federated protocol or a variation on federation (SMTP, XMPP, IRC, DNS, and to some extent, HTTP). The internet by its nature is a federated system.<p>People will be more inclined to trust institutions with which they associate in real life with their data. I don't mind if my company, of which I am a part owner, houses my social data, and federates with other co-equal organizations to generate a public social graph. I do mind that a company in which I have no stake and over which I have no control houses that same data (i.e. Facebook).<p>I think someone will come along, Diaspora or someone else, and create a viable Facebook competitor that is federated and it will take off for this very reason. It has to be as good as, or better than, Facebook <i>as a platform</i> for it to succeed, but it is not impossible.
I get his point, but he lazily lumps in Chromebooks and Android phones with Apple. Google specifically permits user control over their devices, down to including a switch on the ChromeBook to disable boot-locking. It encourages hacking and sells unlocked devices (Nexus) Android devices can install apps from third party non-Play stores, etc.<p>Also, what does dropping support for Reader have to do with privacy? I mean, must Reader be dragged into every conversation, even when it isn't relevant?
Many many years ago, when minicomputers were going away, a fellow who wrote the sysadmin column for the DG users group magazine compared the disappearing environments to semi-benevolent dictatorships: if DEC got too oppressive, you could flee across the border to DG or Prime, and so on. He pointed out that you were much more on your own in the anarchic client-server world.
> We now use our vendor-controlled computing devices to go places. All of these places are owned by someone.<p>What's so different about that, compared to 20 years ago? We used AOL or Compuserve. Internet sites were almost all owned by universities or a small number of companies.<p>> I can't delete cookies on my iPad or ensure that files are securely erased. Updates on my Kindle happen automatically, without my knowledge or consent.<p>Again - you couldn't erase your history on Prodigy or MSN. If you didn't update your dialer/client you were eventually locked out.
>And, finally, don't be extreme in any way: politically, socially, culturally.<p>I strongly disagree with this, not just on principle, but also practically. There is always an extreme.
Mrrdyn Embrys(sp? Welsh?) Merlin, and owl Archimedes, deep and unknown in the Nottingham forest, a linux wizard, magically has an empty satchel filled with new glorious bitcoin! Leaving the stymied corrupt well armed sheriff disconcertingly pissed and helpless.