Rainy day rant
It's raining out and I don't have an umbrella, so I'm going to make a post in hopes that in the time I spend here, the heavens will cry out all their tears. It's not going to be a general post though, I'm going to post a slight rant, instead.
Lately, I've been hearing a lot about how Microsoft's Vista is ripping off Apple's Leopard/Tiger/Jaguar operating system. From articles online to articles in imprint (mostly articles, I guess), people are reprimanding Microsoft for 'stealing' Apple's innovations. Such features as the desktop search (versus Apple's Spotlight) have been accused of being stolen from Apple's OSX.
While I don't argue that Microsoft is not paving new ground by implementing these technologies, I think they are in the right to do so. It is in Microsoft's best interest to deliver what people want, while the creator of these things should not matter. Imagine if only Toyotas had CD players, only Fords had seatbelts, and only Hondas had trunks. People want all these features in one package. When a technology comes about and is touted as an improvement, it becomes the norm. People aren't going to want to have to choose between two operating systems, both offering something they need, nor will they want both. They want everything they need in one package, and if more than one such OS exists, then they can choose based on the minor differences between them.
Meh, I'm not sure if I'm completely convinced with my argument, but at least I wasted a good half hour.
Lately, I've been hearing a lot about how Microsoft's Vista is ripping off Apple's Leopard/Tiger/Jaguar operating system. From articles online to articles in imprint (mostly articles, I guess), people are reprimanding Microsoft for 'stealing' Apple's innovations. Such features as the desktop search (versus Apple's Spotlight) have been accused of being stolen from Apple's OSX.
While I don't argue that Microsoft is not paving new ground by implementing these technologies, I think they are in the right to do so. It is in Microsoft's best interest to deliver what people want, while the creator of these things should not matter. Imagine if only Toyotas had CD players, only Fords had seatbelts, and only Hondas had trunks. People want all these features in one package. When a technology comes about and is touted as an improvement, it becomes the norm. People aren't going to want to have to choose between two operating systems, both offering something they need, nor will they want both. They want everything they need in one package, and if more than one such OS exists, then they can choose based on the minor differences between them.
Meh, I'm not sure if I'm completely convinced with my argument, but at least I wasted a good half hour.
Labels: computer
16 Comments:
Let me chime in to the defence of Microsoft on this one.
Apple has been doing some thievery of its own. Their new "Time Machine" feature is really a ripoff of System Restore in XP and the Shadow Copy feature in Windows 2003. Virtual Desktops? Thats now new either, Microsoft had a powertoy available that added that to Windows several years ago, and just about any Unix/Linux window manager has also done that for years. So much for Apple innovation. In reality, both companies steal from eachother, if Microsoft does something good, Apple copies it, if Apple does something good, like Spotlight, Microsoft will copy that. In the end, both products end up better because of it.
By
Anonymous, at 10/04/2006 6:29 PM
Amen.
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Kevin, at 10/04/2006 7:46 PM
There seems to be a large amount of Vistaphobia out there on the net. I dont really see what people's problems are. I've been using it for a month now as my primary OS without too much trouble, other than the occasional expected bugs with the new GUI and networking stack. I've heard lots of weird stuff like microsoft wants to track all files that you create or edit, or that no current graphics cards will run Vista. All FUD as far as im concerned.
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Anonymous, at 10/05/2006 3:30 PM
My phobia is: will it run on my current computer setup?
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Anonymous, at 10/06/2006 1:44 AM
Well, I dont work for Microsoft, but I would say just about anything made in the past 3 years or so should run Vista. Anything over a P3 1000Mhz and 512Mb ram should be fine, provided it has a 128Mb direct x 9 video card (I think that means anything from a Geforce FX on up)
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Anonymous, at 10/06/2006 2:20 PM
Again: will it run on my computers? Cause none of them are from within the last 3 years and none of them have a video card of more than 32 MB (I'm not a PC gamer, so a video card of over 32 MB is overkill for my purposes). One of my computers meets only the processing requirements (not the ram or video card) and another one meetings the ram and processor but not the video card... plus it shuts down when it overheats from firefox and itunes running side by side.
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Anonymous, at 10/07/2006 1:53 AM
The video card thing can be ignored. Thats only if you want the high end pretty "Glass" interface. If you have an old video card it will run in basic mode, and it will work well enough, just look like XP. RAM might be the only barrier, in which case its pretty cheap. 512Mb sdram chips are like $50 on sale, which is nothing compared to the cost of buying Vista itself.
Firefox and iTunes are pretty inefficient apps anyway. Switch to IE or Opera and windows media player or winamp. Only snag is media player still doesnt support netcasts, so you'll need a 3rd party program for that.
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Anonymous, at 10/08/2006 4:43 PM
WHOA WHOA WHOA... Media Player and Winamp have been stress tested, and each crashes my laptop much faster than iTunes... whether iTunes is considered inefficient, at least whatever it does doesn't crash my laptop as quickly ;)
And I'm gonna have to block out of my mind the suggestion to switch to IE... that's crazy... and Opera was another crasher of my laptop more quickly than Firefox, so I shan't be switching.
I think iTunes and Firefox may use more ram, but as a tradeoff, they seem to use less processing time, which is a HUGE win over alternatives.
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Anonymous, at 10/09/2006 8:22 PM
Well if your laptop crashes so regularly it probably has deeper issues than the software running on it. Assuming its not running Windows 98 or ME, computers shouldnt be crashing every day. Once a year is more realistic
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Anonymous, at 10/10/2006 11:10 AM
Oh, it's a hardware issue... the fan inside is busted, and I use a desk fan to keep it cool. I'm just lazy to replace the internal fan when everything I run, runs fine... however, the stress tests still imply that Media Player, Winamp and Opera, although possibly using less ram than iTunes, use less processing time, the key thing that overheats my laptop.
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Anonymous, at 10/10/2006 11:37 AM
Im not so sure about firefox, but I think most people will agree that itunes for windows is a very bad application. Lots of people complain about itunes issues.
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Anonymous, at 10/11/2006 3:46 PM
A lot of people complain about George W. Bush, but he still wins elections.
It sounds like a lot of people complaining, but that's because you don't hear from the tonnes of people of who enjoy it, because we have no reason to say anything. iTunes works fine for us :)
For instance, if you got food at a restaurant, and it was as you expected it should be, you might not say anything, but if your server, by random chance, dropped it on the floor, or accidentally undercooked it one time, that would be when you complained... not the 99.99% of the other times when it was done right :)
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Anonymous, at 10/12/2006 4:06 PM
Thats probably at least part of the problem. In Apple's case, I dont think they really make good quality Windows software. Look at Quicktime as well. Thats also a nasty piece of work. I dont think its in Apple's interests either to improve it. They will just use it as another way to try and convince users that PCs are crap and they should switch to a Mac. One thing I'll give Apple props for though is putting in netcast support into itunes. Microsoft still hasnt figured that part out.
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Anonymous, at 10/14/2006 12:28 AM
I think this might be a new record for most comments on a single post in Kevin's blog
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Anonymous, at 10/14/2006 12:29 AM
Undoubtedly.
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Kevin, at 10/14/2006 10:54 AM
Word. Yeah, Quicktime blows on Windows. It was the FIRST bit of software to shut down my hardware if it even just started up.
By
Anonymous, at 10/15/2006 12:17 AM
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