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Apple and Linux Beneficial to Each Other?

Posted by pudge on from the cats-and-dogs-living-together dept.

viewstyle writes "There is an interesting commentary on eWEEK discussing the 'synergies' between Apple and Linux after visiting LinuxWorld. It makes a good point that advancement of Linux is good for Mac OS X and vice versa, because of the ease of porting across the platforms (soon to get easier with the X11 on Mac OS X)." Next thing you know, most of the Slashdot editors and programmers will be using Macs ...

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  1. Some of Apple's "Gifts" to the Linux Community by edward.virtually@pob · · Score: 1, Troll

    In no particular order:

    1. Harrassing Aqua-ish theme makers. As Apple should know, you can't patent "look and feel" -- as their failed case against MS demonstrated.

    2. Refusing to release a Sorenson codec enabled player or library for Linux, effectively locking Linux users out of an increasing majority of all Internet video content and thus making Linux unviable to end users. Don't bother me with 'it isn't Apple's' fault -- as was covered here months ago, IT IS! See http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/19/ 190248&mode=thread -- Apple SUED Macromedia to keep them from releasing a properly functional Linux player. Also don't bother me with 'but you can buy blah blah blah' or 'you can use unauthorized codec clone blah' -- I don't want nor should have to buy anything or break the law to watch what Mac and Windows users see legally for free.

    3. Undercutting development of established Open Source projects, like Mozilla and XFree86, by pushing less open alternatives and thus both cutting their mindshare and draining developer talent. And before someone replies 'but now it supports X11', the point is that they aren't the 'default' systems under MacOS -- which means "native" GUI MacOS X applications are useless to Linux, and pages coded for Safari will probably becoming increasing incompatible with Mozilla.

    Apple is a parasite sucking the blood of the Open Source movement, and is actively working to destroy Linux as a viable solution. The "open" solutions Apple endorses (Quicktime, Safari) do not work on Linux and serve only to spur sales of MacOS X.

    In short: Apple is not Linux's friend, and these articles that claim otherwise are stupid and tiresome. Jobs may be fooling the moronic majority, but that isn't everyone. FUCK YOU, JOBS.