Apple Still Says No To Aqua-Like Themes

JoFo writes: "Eric Yang, creator of several Aqua-like themes and skins for GTK+, KDE, Mozilla, gkrellm, and others, was forced by Apple to take down all Aqua-related projects on his web site. It appears they went to his employer as a way to strong-arm him. He writes on his web site 'I went to Apple to test cocoa for Mac OS X 10.1, and found a drag and drop problem with NSPopUpButtonCell. They didn't even pay me for my effort, yet they try to shut down my project. Isn't that ironic?'" Apple seems at least to be consistent in objecting to nearly any non-Apple project that reminds the company of Aqua, so maybe this was just a matter of time.

Comments

This is silly

[NitsujTPU]

I don't think that they will ever be able to claim rights to "all pretty translucent themes."

Just name it something else already.

If you get into trouble, throw some prior work, like your favorite drinking glass into evidence.

Apple legal

[Stenpas]

Apple legal has always been very brutal. If you go back far enough, you'll see that they have not lost a match yet, except for Apple vs. Microsoft. Even so, they did get Microsoft to basically admit that they just ripped off the MacOS. They won the legal battles with Colorsync, Quicktime VR, some company that copied the imac, and some other stuff. Not to mention a million and one Cease And Desist orders to places like macosrumors.com.

Personally, I think Apple should sue Microsoft for stealing the rubber ducky and putting it in Windows XP! That's just SO WRONG!! it's Apple's ducky, and those punks at Microsoft think they can just horizontally flip it and call it theirs. It doesn't work that way! I'd go so far as to say the rubber ducky should be Apple's mascot.

Wait. I think I heard from somewhere that Microsoft did remove the rubber ducky. Any truth to this?

Sosumi

[Anonymous Coward]

All I have to say to Apple is:

SOSUMI

Re:Eric Yang, Sociopath?

[Ridge2001]

First, please don't use the word "ironic " until you learn its meaning. That goes for all of you out there. This has been a major pet peeve of me since the early 90s when all those black and flannel-clad, angsty gen-Xers were big on the word "ironic" without actually knowing the definition of the word.

Funny, I would think that misusing the word "sociopath" would be far more serious than misusing the word "ironic".

Re:Eric Yang, Sociopath?

[dangermouse]

...but I am a member of MENSA...

Translation:
"...however, I am a card-carrying tool..."

Christ, I hate MENSA. There's nothing quite like a Smarter Than Everybody Else Club.

Re:This is why I'll lock my code out of OS/X

[naasking]

Apple is lame attempting to lock people out of assimulating a decent theme.

Is everyone so unoriginal that they can't come up with their own stuff? Do you have to copy someone else all the time, even after they've asked you not to?

Well too bad Xerox can sue thier ass for copying a window environment similar to thier own.

They tried, they lost.

This is why once my Multifli code gets out, I'll have a GPL, but I will lock it out of any use on OS/X.

Well hey, no one can stop you from being an idiot.

Also Why don't we design a theme that rivals Aqua,

Hey! There's an original idea!

copyleft it,

Sure, it's your decision (just like it's Apple's).

and make it illieagal for them to assimulate it.

They wouldn't be interested anyway.

Apples days are numbered anyway.

uhuh. Are you a financial analyst? You have some inside info you'd like to share?

I have a multiplatform environment at home. I've got ... [blah, blah] ... w 1.3GHZ Athlon and 256MB DDR RAM Linux box, everything is supported by the 2.4x kernel, including the DVD ROM and 1394 firewire.

That's nice. Obviously you know what you're talking about since you have so many computer in such an impressive setup.

This box is much faster then the Apple G4 that I had on lone. My kernel compile times are less than half the time taken with the G4.

If I hadn't been so impressed with your knowledge of computers (based on that impressively long-winded description) this statement would normally indicate someone completely ignorant of CPU architecture. Someone with your impressive knowledge would have to know that the G4 is a RISC CPU, and that compilation for RISC architectures is significatantly more complicated than CISC CPUs. You see, the RISC architecture moves code optimization into the compiler, while CISC moves it onto the CPU. Consequently, compilation for RISC machines undergo more optimization cycles. But I'm sure you already knew that! You had to! I mean, you have a ethernet access to your mpeg player! If that's not an indication of expertise, I don't know what is. Well, besides an engineering degree like I have...

Yes the CPU speed is faster on the AMD

I'm glad you noticed that too.

And the 7200RPM hard drives aren't bad either.

Ya, I'm sure those would help a little. Just a LITTLE though.

So, go ahead apple. be a scrooge and put all your eforts into preventing others from using a simular desktop. What goes around comes around. You take from the Open Source movement and you don't reciprocate.

uhhuh

Well, I'm done. Have a nice day. :-)