The Macalope is not here to tell you that up is down and right is wrong, but sometimes the comments provide more information than the article.
The Verge tells us that “Swift Playgrounds sells coding as simple and fun — just like rest of Apple’s products.” (Tip o’ the antlers to Jenny Javert.)
It’s a nice headline. Some of the article, however, seems to have been collected from the floor of a conventional thinking factory in 2008.
But most importantly, Swift Playgrounds fits into Apple’s proprietary business efforts as it has a vested interest in teaching kids to code in Swift; apps built in Swift only work on iOS devices.
Proprietary Apple is indoctrinating our children! Please read the open letter and sign the online petition! No fluoridation in our drinking water and no Swift Playgrounds in our child’s programming curriculum!
Locking people into its ecosystem is kind of Apple’s thing (Ehm, iMessage).
Which has been rumored to be coming to Android but, yeah, so far it’s just on iOS. It is truly is terrible that Apple doesn’t make more free services for people who don’t buy their products. Awful. What is this, capitalism? In this economy? Er… Well.
The real lock-in with Apple products is not apps or music or messages or Pokemon iPhone cases. It’s that people prefer them. People would be complaining more about the attempts of Android OEMs and cellular carriers to get people into their ecosystems by pre-installing their crapware if only they weren’t so bad at it.
“Proprietary Apple is at it again” is a familiar story that’s appealing to knees all over that love to jerk. There’s just one tiny little problem with your airdancer-style reaction to Apple’s devious doings.
Swift is open source. Something a commenter had to point out.
Updated 6/14, 3:46 PM ET: Updated to note that Swift is now open source.
Well, that’s awkward. “Updated to note this entire piece is based on a preconception that turned out to not be true in any way. Oopsies.”
That being said, we should note that Swift is open source, so it’s possible it’ll be more widely adopted on Linux and eventually show up on Android.
“It’s possible our article is completely misplaced. Only time will tell. Now, please watch this instructional video on fly fishing safety as we slowly back toward the door…”
Apple tends to be somewhat more closed and proprietary than some of its competitors. But it was never as true as it was made out to be and this isn’t the Apple of 2008.