Apple Not Too Harmonious with Real

An anonymous reader writes "As if in answer to the question previously asked on Slashdot, CNN Money is reporting that Apple isn't all that happy that Real pried open the door to the iPod for its RealMedia files. "We are stunned that RealNetworks has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod." It should be interesting to see how this pans out in court, and if the DeCSS case serves as some sort of precedent."

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[Anonymous Coward]

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[Anonymous Coward]

The OpenSource movement is one of those things I both love and hate. I love the concept - it harkens back to the 70s and how I got into computing. It was a time when almost no one actually owned a computer; we shared access to systems which ran Unix and MTS and other esoteric OSes, or we borrowed time on PDP-8s, and PDP-11s when the University would let us have it. We didn't compete about brand of computer - who could afford our own computer? - we engaged in friendly competition trying to improve each other's code.

That all changed in the late 70's when a young programmer actually had the audacity to sell his BASIC interpreter to the other programmers rather than just giving it and the source code for it away. He went away and sold it to Altair and Apple and well... the rest, as they say, is history. With the IBM-PC making microcomputing respectable in 1981 (running an OS owned by, although not written by, that same young programmer), the die was cast and computing was changed in a fundamental way. Creating software, even for recreational purposes, was tied to making money - and nothing kills the notion of community faster than putting a price on it.

Some people, like Richard Stallman, have always tried to keep a bit of this spirit alive - admittedly, it must be like fighting uphill in an avalanche. But it wasn't until Linux that the OpenSource movement really kicked in. Sure, there were lots of other OpenSource projects before Linux - BSD, GNU, and while Linux relies on GNU for a lot of its tools, the truth is that none of these projects ever managed to capture the heart of people like Linux.

Which leads me to the 'hate' part. There's a growing fanaticism within the OpenSource community which is starting to smell almost as bad as the fanaticism it tries to combat.

Bruno! Never kill a customer!

Eric Raymond's comments at MacHack were wonderfully telling in several ways. He criticised Mac programmers for being too focussed on user interface and criticised MacOS for intertwining the UI with system functionality, making it harder for new programmers to get on board writing MacOS apps.

Interestingly, the number one problems with Linux, from a consumer perspective, are that it doesn't have a standardised UI; its tools are simply too difficult to use and configure, and it requires far too much upfront learning to get up to speed. The last is the most telling: the Linux model moves the cost of learning from the developer to the user.

As for upfront developer time, well, that's true - it is harder to learn MacOS than it is to learn, say, the ANSI C libraries... but in truth, Raymond overstates the issue. In fact, MacOS can be divided in several large chunks. I regularly write 'console' apps in MacOS to do little tasks which don't warrant a lot of UI. I also have several shells for drag and drop functionality which handles all that sort of stuff. In fact, I tend to stick to the ANSI C libraries. There are some deficits in MacOS, relative to the 'standard' libraries - MacOS has overwhelmingly complex networking support compared to sockets and streams, but it also offers more complex functionality.

Ironically, it's the focus on UI, perhaps taken to obsession, which gives MacOS its edge over... well, it has to be said this way - over all other OSes. Windows comes close, but misses simply because Windows developers really do not have that obsession to make the UI perfect. Linux and the various X-Window interfaces rarely even come close. The obsession with sticking to a standard behaviour means that MacOS users experience a consistency of behaviour that no other OS can offer (although again, Windows is getting closer - Linux is not even close).

Why the obsession? Simple. The customer is the reason for the software. The customer must never be punished for choosing your software. That means that the UI experience must be compelling. It has to be refined. It should, as much as possible, anticipate without being annoying (which is where Windows applications - especial

good for the goose...

[LMCBoy]

This from the company founded by the two Steves, whose first endeavor was selling "Blue Boxes" which allowed people to make free long distance phone calls.

Rip, mix, burn. Burn, baby, burn.

Re:Bear this in mind.

[ArsonSmith]

I don't think so, I would normaly vote republican. Bush is horrid, Kerry is worse, proped up only by his republican wife. Third party is the only vote I can stand to put in this election.

I'm voteing libertarian
Michael Badnarik

Free iPOD "scheme"

[kensiko]

Hey Slashdotters, I did a search for this free iPods scheme on here and didn't find anything and thought some of you might be interested in getting a free iPod (and in the process helping me get mine). It's pretty simple and by the variety of results/testimonials I found from Google I'm fairly certain it's legit.

How it works, is you sign up with freeiPods.com and choose one offer from about 10 companies (including Ebay, AOL, Columbia House, BMG, and others). The offers range from free trials to actual purchases -- the easiest seems to be to sign up for an Ebay account and bid on an item (you don't have to win). You then get five friends (or in my case Slashdotters), to join freeiPods and apply for an offer of their own.

The following is my referral link, but of course feel free to simply bypass me and visit freeipods.com http://www.freeipods.com/default.aspx?referer=7470 979

A pretty good description of how they afford this can be found here http://www.sphid.com/misc/ipod/ and I'm sure there's more discussion if you search google.

BTW, have any of you Slashdotters gone through with this deal?

Thanks if you clicked my link, and good luck on getting an ipod of your own!

-Kensiko