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LinSpire LPhoto and LSongs: bring on the lawsuits!

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the not-much-loriginatility dept.

Sir Joltalot writes "Over at OSNews they're covering the newly-renamed LinSpire's LSongs and LPhoto apps. Take a look at those screenshots, and you'll notice a striking resemblence to Apple's iTunes and iPhoto. Take a look at this flash presentation and you'll see that LPhoto and iPhoto are almost exactly alike. They look like nifty apps, to be sure, but how long will they last? I would have thought LinSpire might have learned from the whole Lindows name fiasco..."

5 of 481 comments (clear)

  1. No bad publicity? by rpbailey1642 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Call me a cynic, but before this entire thing, I never gave Lindows/Linspire a second glance. Now, they've been in the top of the news here at Slashdot several times. Nothing like staying in the eyes of your target audience, I guess?

    1. Re:No bad publicity? by Tore+S+B · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ahem, their "target audience" does not read /.

      --
      toresbe
  2. Looks Bad by DaleP · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's amazing how similar the apps are, and yet LTunes still manages to look pants in comparison to iTunes. All this despite having almost exactly the same set of controls on the screen. There's more to this design business than you think.

  3. Re:You can have your iPhoto by moongha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This argument doesn't hold water.

    Someone brings out a nice product, then someone brings out an OSS clone of it. If anyone complains, slashdotters insist that you can't patent 'usability', and that the original product was somehow the obvious end result of solving a particular usabiliity problem

    Then someone brings out another product that solves it in a different and superior way. Then someone clones that, etc...

    It's blatantly not true that the iTunes or iPhoto interface is the only possible way of solving the music/photo management usability problem. It's blatantly true that the Linspire dudes are saving money on R&D by ripping off Apple (& Microsoft) so they can invest it in other things like marketing (and legal defence).

    But what happens if the innovating companies go away? What happens if nobody bothers with R&D? Who will Linspire rip off then?

  4. We can be so hypocritical sometimes... by pongo000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just take a look at OpenOffice...look familiar to anyone? Down to the toolbars and icons, it is a clone of Word. By design, to make the transition between the two apps easier.

    So it's OK for "our" apps to copy the look and feel of a competitor we don't like, yet not OK for an "outsider" to copy the look and feel of a competitor palatable to many of us?

    Give me a break...