"While one can quibble as to whether this is truly on the level of a "Big Brother" issue, there's another point to be made - Apple hasn't changed the way that it acts. If you want to talk about closed environments, look at the original Macintosh. Unlike other computers that allowed expansion slots or even alternate operating systems, the Mac had none of that. One can argue that the Mac was an example of planned obsolescence, undercutting the rival Lisa product (and yes, due to the nature of bureaucratic organizations, the Lisa - and the Apple II - were competitors to the Mac) and eventually killing it. Perpetual war? See above. Remember that the symbol of the Macintosh team was a pirate flag (the Mac team vs. the rest of Apple), and the impetus for the ad itself was Jobs' brilliant positioning of Apple as an underdog fighting IBM. The one thing that I'll grant you is that the original Mac did not represent an "ever-expanding imposition into daily lives." Because of the philosophy at..." - John E. Bredehoft