Here’s my first computer, the Apple ][+. It booted into a BASIC programming prompt so you could write code. Then you could save it on a floppy disk or a tape and share it with others. Where is the company that invented the personal computer now?

The good news is that they have a billion devices in circulation. The bad news: to get permission to program, you have to submit a form and a $100 fee. To release it, you submit another form and wait for Apple to decide whether they will allow you to do that. Often they don’t.

There is a weird dichotomy in this company. On one hand, it’s a trillion dollar monopoly that exercises absolute power over developers’ businesses and livelihood. On the other, Apple has become the App DMV, replete with forms, lines, byzantine policies, and bureaucracy.

In my view, this is no way to run a billion user ecosystem. Developers should be free to create and release software as they wish, users should be free to install software as they wish, and the distribution monopoly should be opened up to competing payments and other services.