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We've heard a lot lately about walled gardens, those digital places where the content is controlled by a device manufacturer, a content creator, a content distributor, or Web tool. Examples are plenty-- Apple has all iPhone and iPad content funneled through the App Store, Facebook controls what user information that it sells, Amazon and Apple both apply digitals locks (DRM) on content that they sell. The list could go on, but suffice to say that there are a lot of people trying to exert some control over what you can do or see on a digital device.

There are those, such as Cory Doctorow, who make a compelling case that no outside controls should be implemented, that users should be the ultimate decision maker about how to use devices or content that they buy. It is always nice to have choices, and Doctorow wants to have them all. To that end, he publishes his books without any DRM and refuses to participate with outlets that insist upon it. He uses an open source operating system on his computer, and has made an impassioned plea for people to boycott the iPad.

Then are those like Leo Laporte, who agrees in large part with Doctorow, but sees utility in using some locked devices. He loves his iPad and Audible books, even though both are to some degree locked.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, says that the controls on the iPad and the iPhone are there to enhance the user experience, and that applications like Flash use too much power and cause devices to crash. Besides, he notes, nobody has to buy an iPad. He has famously said that "if you want porn, use Android".

In a scene from the TV show West Wing, one of the characters says, "I agree with you, and (pointing to someone else) I agree with you, and (again pointing to someone else) I agree with you, and you know that makes me crazy!" That's how I feel. Both camps have good, logical arguments. They are well reasoned and supported by good data.

I am afraid that too much control by others will ultimately limit my user experience, but too little control has the same result. I am an avid Linux user. I love to be able to tinker with how things work, download whatever I like, configuring my computer exactly as I would like it. The downside is that I HAVE to tinker with it to make it work right. Unlike Windows or the Mac OS, which work right out the box, Linux is for those who really want to mess with it. I recently reformatted my Linux net book. It took about 45 minutes to reformat, and about 4 hours to get it to work. I had to find and install drivers, and additional code to allow it play music, or Flash, or movies, etc. Because I like to do that, it was ok, but it wasn't how I had planned to spend an evening.