[VladRussian]

>Don't get me wrong - I love to see how the iPad just shattered the barrier of entry for non-technical users, even though I'm a FOSS guy. But I do think that it was at too great (and an unnecessarily so) a cost to the understanding of that technology.

25+ years ago, s/iPad/AppleII\/Mac)/. Was Mac too great and unnecessary cost?

I'm not an Apple fun. The Apple philosophy (and prices) has always been foreign to me. Yet, it isn't possible to dismiss the fact that back then they paved the way for the ubiqutous cheap commodity "inferior to Mac" PC and these days they did it again for these "inferior to iPhone/iPad" devices

http://www.everbuying.com/Wholesale-Notebook-UMPC-MID-b-815....

Some analogy comes with icebreaker ships - they have so much unnecessary stuff, so overbuilt, have so low utility ... until it comes to the 2m thick ice.

[skore]

I was not talking about price. I was talking about the cost of removing, from the consumer, access to tinker with the technology.