Apple's web
Friday, October 31, 2008 by Dave Winer.
Yesterday I read that Apple rejected the Opera browser for the iPhone. This is so wrong in so many ways. I think this is the end for me and my iPhone. I've been using it only as a phone since July when I got the Eee PC 901. When I need to bring a computer with me somewhere that's what I bring. The iPhone as a computer has become too unreliable, too many components just don't work, and the biggest bug in the whole thing is the company that makes it. 
Apple keeps doing this, trying to take ownership of things they didn't invent. It doesn't work, they don't end up owning it, they just keep their users from getting the benefits of Apple having competition. It happened before when they rejected the iPhone podcatcher that worked the way podcatchers were always supposed to work, and now they want exclusivity on the web on iPhones.
The web was designed as an open system. That means the user has a choice of software he or she wants to use to browse the web. Even when it was at its peak of monopolism, Microsoft never went so far as to prohibit the installation of the competitive browser on Windows, they just bundled one with the OS.
Whatever. I'll vote with my dollars. I'm in the market for a new cell phone. I liked my old Blackberry. I want one with a camera. Voicemail that works. Not made by Apple.
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"The protoblogger." - NY Times.
"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.
One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web. "Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.
"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.
"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.
Dave Winer, 53, pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California.
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