The awkward step-sibling

Photo by Malte Sorensen used with Creative Commons license

For the last twenty years I have worked on Apple hardware and software. Apple empowered my first years within the graphics industry. I was able to grow as a creative individual and I credit much of my development to using Apple's tools. 
In recent years, I felt, that Apple has gradually ignored the Mac desktop community. The last two updates to the operating system I have investigated then chosen to ignore, as they brought little that I needed to the table. The Mac Pro I rely on is beginning to show its age and Apple have seemingly ignored these machines favouring the shiny faced iMac. As a Mac user I'm starting to feel like the awkward step-sibling in the new family.
As a reaction to this I gradually became more and more interested in the open community. Admittedly falling for Ubuntu's Mac like charms. What has worried me recently is that Apple and Canonical are two companies which seem to be ignoring their open roots. Ubuntu appears to want to model its future on Apple, moving away from its open past and internalising more of the discusion making. Apple on the other hand would perhaps profit by becoming more open. Open to influence, from the community that supports it and open to the world at large. When you are the only kid in the sandbox you could control who uses what. But as more and more players such as Samsung, with bottomless pockets, throw everything at the wall some things stick.
If the past teaches us anything, open and collaborative tends to succeed over closed and insular. Apple wanted to become like Sony in its early days, but its open nature allowed it to grow and produce products better than Sony. Sony's closed nature and insular approach prevented it reacting to change. I think being open is important, it encourages inovation and prevents becoming insular to the world at large.