The next threat to free software: Siri?

[Erez D]

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 2:55 PM, Nadav Har'El <nyh at math.technion.ac.il>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> When I heard Apple's announcements yesterday, the thing that worried me
> most
> is "Siri", their new voice interface - which allows users to give their
> machine
> voice commands in free language, and have responses spoken back to them.
>
> It's still too early to tell whether Siri is the best thing since sliced
> bread, or maybe it's the worst UI since Microsoft Bob; But it definitely
> has the potential to be closer to the former, not the latter. What worries
> me is that the free software world does not have a response prepared for
> Siri.
> Or at least not one that I'm aware of - Is anyone aware of free software
> that is capable of something more than robotic speech synthesis? And any
> sort of speech understanding? Even if just in English?
>
> I'm afraid that if Siri becomes an important feature for consumers, then
> Android phones and tablets, as well as desktops running Linux, will be
> missing
> this feature. I don't want to see individual handset makers (e.g., Samsung,
> Motorola, etc.) developing this feature because that would mean that only
> some of the Android handsets will have it, and desktop Linux would not have
> it at all.... Maybe Google will develop this for the benefit of everyone,
> but then again, maybe one day Google will grow tired of not doing Evil, and
> will stop doing the dirty work for other companies for free?
>
>  well, you are right to worry about some features missing open source
implementations.
however android is a different issue.
first of all. google can add a closed app that will give support to phones
of htc, samsung, etc ...
of course this will not be part of the open source addition. however android
market is not open also ...
on the other hand. although android in general is open, but the actual
android systems are not exactly free (freedom)
you usually are not able to do what you like with your phone, if it is not
rooted, and some phones (e.g. atrix afaik) will only boot to a rom that is
digitally signed so you will not be able to burn open source version ...
so android would not be my first worry

android for me is not that far than what windows used to be few years
earlier

i see resemblance of old pc market - apple(closed) vs microsoft (also close
but less restrictive) to today's apple(closed) vs android (not really open
practically).
my 2c is that apple didn't learn their lesson from last battle with
microsoft, and apple(iphone) will be more of a niche market, which will be
taken mostly by android. similiar as what was before apple (mac) vs
microsoft.

> Some might remember that this is actually not the first time I mention
> this worry. Six years ago, long before Siri (and a couple of years before
> iPhone was released), I voiced exactly the same concern when I talked about
> the next hurdles for Hebrew in free software:
>
>        http://linmagazine.co.il/node/view/9973
>
> (see the last section there)
>
> Nadav.
>
> --
> Nadav Har'El                        |                  Wednesday, Oct 5
> 2011,
> nyh at math.technion.ac.il
> |-----------------------------------------
> Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |I don't eat snails. I prefer fast
> food.
> http://nadav.harel.org.il           |
>
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