Mike Daisey on Steve Jobs

By Isaac Butler

There are few people more steeped in Stevejobsiana and less in the tank for him than Mike Daisey.  It's not that Daisey's a hater, no, it's just that Mike wants to evaluate Jobs's life and legacy with as clear eyes as possible.  Thanks to the odd convergence of Jobs's death and the opening of Mike's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the Public, Mike has penned a New York Times Op-Ed piece on Jobs that is well worth your ten minutes. And when do theater artists get to write on the Op-Ed page? Like never! Here's a taste:

Mr. Jobs leaves behind a dominant Apple, fulfilling his original promise to save the company from the brink when he returned in 1997. Because of its enormous strength in both music sales and mobile devices, Apple has more power than at any time in its history, and it is using that power to make the computing experience of its users less free, more locked down and more tightly regulated than ever before. All of Apple’s iDevices — the iPod, iPhone and iPad — use operating systems that deny the user access to their workings. Users cannot install programs themselves; they are downloaded from Apple’s servers, which Apple controls and curates, choosing at its whim what can and can’t be distributed, and where anything can be censored with little or no explanation.

RTWT here.

Comments

[kim]

For those interested Mike Daisey spoke about Jobs in an interview on Australian TV. Video and transcript here:

www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3334201.htm

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