Quote:
Originally Posted by malligator
As for the closed garden...the Xcode compiler/IDE and iOS SDK are free. You can program your iDevice and/or Mac to do anything you want. You only have to pay for a membership as an Apple developer if you want to list your app on the App Store. I'd say Apple offers the most open, customizable products on the planet.
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The iOS SDK can be downloaded only onto a Mac; either you own a Mac PC or you can't use it to develop anything. Also, even if you download the SDK to a Mac and develop an iPhone/iPad application, you can't upload and install it on your iPhone/iPad unless you either pay that membership to list it on the App Store, or you jailbreak your iDevice. So no, they're not
the most open and customizable products on the planet, because they force you to use a specific additional hardware if you want to customize it and to pay an annual fee only to upload
your software onto
your device; and also you can't customize the device itself but only develop additional features (the so called Apps).
They aren't completely closed either, but they can't be called
the most open. Calling bread with its name.
Changing features
inside the OS is no easy task, for example: it can be done, but it isn't
tinkering, it's more like
hacking. And
whacking too sometimes, if you know what I mean
