Is iPad a step back for Open Source software?

Apple has unfortunately planned to lock down all the capability of the latest iPad, so that no Open Source software can be used.

It will ship with unprecedented levels of DRM security, stifling Open Source projects to create applications for its latest product.

Amazon delete users copy with DRM

This summer DRM was shipped on ebook readers, when Amazon deleted hundreds of copies of George Orwell’s 1984 from readers’ computers while they slept. Applying this control to a general purpose computer marketed especially for media distribution is a huge step backward for computing, and a blow to the media revolution that happened when the web let bloggers reach millions without asking for permission.

Feel strongly about Open Source?

Some bloggers are extremely “hacked off” with Apples choice of using DRM for the iPad, so much so that new petitions have been setup to request removal from Apple.

How do you feel about the iPad?

Let us know what you think with a comment below below.

Further Reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/feb/01/apple-ipad-choke-innovation

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