"Netscape could have survived by one-upping IE on a feature by feature level and selling a low cost, high value Netscape Gold package that enabled surfers to do something interesting"
I really wish what you say were actually feasible to do.
"one-upping IE on a feature by feature level" - Nearly impossible to do given IE development had (at the time) unlimited funding supported by other-market monopolies (read Office), I mean, you actually believe you and a bunch of corporate coders could do that and fight agains the proven illegal bundling tactics? Come-oh-on!
"selling a low cost, high value Netscape Gold package" - Having such a product means that it would have to have a significant number of interesting features not in the free IE-one-upping browser, which MS would shamelessly copy and include for free in their basic package, which would force you to one-up it again (including your previously "pay" features for free). Recursive algorithm with a simple end: financial death for your company.
Oh, come on! Suppose you were at the helm of NS at the moment, you surely would had managed to save it from irrelevancy against IE.
Regarding the Opera, FireFox and OmniWeb software you mention (which BTW are excellent engineering in all cases), they exist and by sheer cleverness and innovation (and not getting rich either) they manage to survive but nothing else. They are relegated to niche status, *that* is "good-enough" for MS, 'token survival' and then they will leave you alone.
"[...] Apple offer proprietary formats [...]"
WRONG: They also offer many open ones too: check out the MPEG-4 standard (open does not mean free in all cases, amigo).
"Apple AAC" - WRONG: check out DOLBY's AAC licensing page, you'll see the list of licensing prices anyone can pay if he/she so desires and has the funds.
"[...] the problems Apple AAC [...] files do" - pure FUD: which are those problems? State them or shut up.
Certainly no security model other than a complete "1984" will protect from Stupid Users(tm), so this being equal on all systems, let's factor it out of the discussion already.
True remote exploits due to the crappy Windoze security model will kick the butt of the Average-non-stupid-user(tm) whilst the same user on a more security-concious and better overall security design (read MacOSX or Linux) will be safer.
Power-users(tm) are usually safe on any decent enough platform, but you have to agree that is also a factor to be left out of the discussion.
True enough. But any operating system that has a significant market share is going to be targetted by virus, spyware and other malware writers, and the truth is that the vast majority require user intervention to install and spread. All that would happen, if the user didn't just run as root/whatever, is that they'd enter their root password when prompted. Malware will still masquerade as system utilities, or piggy-back on legitimate installs (Kazaa, etc). Then, once OS X/Linux/whatever is little or no safer than Windows, what then? Everyone move to a BSD?
[Insert arguments of IIS vs Apache marketshare and exploits ratio discussion]. This unsecure from unexposure argument is a fallacy and you know it.
"Now Apple is stealing Open Source technology [...]"
Yeah! Just checkout the latest info on bash 3.0. It seems that "Several bug fixes for POSIX compliance came in from Apple; their assistance is appreciated." How about that? AC, being a world class shell scripter, you must surely appreciate this help.
Remember that Apple was first in USB-ubiquity, Firewire-ubiquity, floppy-less-ubiquity and a long list...
Because of that track record, cut them some slack on this, if they haven't done so yet, there must be plenty of reasons for it.
On the other hand, complaints on the graphics card relative weakness... bear in mind the minor speedup photoshop or parallel number crunching would get with a more high-end GPU, marginal at best. If interested in smoother UT playing, just BTO a better card.
"or a company that chooses to work with" (emphasis mine)
Uh, too outstanding to just not comment... I assure you that *not* "choosing" to work with the RIAA to sell mainstream music in the USA (no disrespect to independents) is a sure way of "choosing" to spend a loooong time in jail. Feel free to present us with your mainstream RIAA-free music online store, I will happily send you my money then, but it will be probably all spent feeding your army of lawyers.
Correct me if I'm wrong but..., do the very P2P programs themselves violate any of the DMCA stuff?
I think not, last time I checked giFT was available...
Now that I mention it, wouldn't it be more easier/feasible/comfortable to just write a plugin for giFT? To avoid and get rid of crappy WIND32 UI mannerisms, avoid GUI porting and just fire Poisoned (or whatever) away?
I'm sorry, my wallet is not currently compatible with your store.
Napster is currently compatible with MS's flag OS's. Other OS's are not supported at this time and never will.
If you are planning on getting me to spend my money on this store, the service will not be compatible and you should discontinue trying to do any business with me. If you will support *my* computer and *my* operating system, please continue.
"throwing in some glitzy features for kids to rave over"
Agreed, but "kids" are also a significant market segment which is not to be overlooked.
"Downloading Songs Off iPod Through The Media Player"
Definitely trivial to implement and handy though there surely are reasons to keep the RIAA hounds happy and this is a nice touch they surely appreciate.
"Support for competing MP3 portables"
Though also handy, it is incompatible with the "at least break even financially" requeriment on the purchased tunes (AFAIK, there is no problem with ripped songs).
"Gapless playback on iPod"
Yeah, tough this is an iPod's problem (surely they have taken note of this) and not related to iTunes in anyway.
Maybe. I happen to live in Europe, you mean there's no point in using iTunes? It existed long before there was an iTunes Music Store. It is a great music organizer and CD-ripper which I love using (though there are other good options). I can trivially share my playlists on my LAN too (not so many and not so good other options).
Please enlighten me as how in Hell iTunes is "pay"? And please call the police as I and a zillion friends have installed iTunes without paying a single dime, I will obligingly surrender (can't speak for my zillion friends).
Apple strong-arming the little guys? Apple using the DMCA to kill a free software project? Apple behaving like Microsoft et. al? And then reported on MacSlash? What is the world coming to??
I can't wait to read all the apologist crap that's about to be posted here. Let the McFanboy fest begin.
Being free (as in beer or as in speech) doesn't exclude you from being prosecuted if breaking the law. Don't like DMCA? Go lobby your congressman.
If Apple didn't go and prosecute and strong-arm the "little guys" that illegaly (see above) damage its business, it would be a stupid move and be perceived in future lawsuits as "having no interest in protecting its trademarks, etc.".
Apple is only protecting its interests, damaged by people that are acting against the law... how exactly is that "behaving like Microsoft"? I would call that "behaving smartly".
<sarcasm>
If some "little guy" mugs you in the street or strips your house bare, it should be your duty to report to the police, however futile. Poverty in the world? Go lobby your congressman.
</sarcasm>
Yeah, I have been wondering the same. However, I am sure the longtime UNIX wizards at Apple (remember some come from NeXT) know of such projects.
My bet is that they have thought long and hard on this and it is not yet implemented because of cost, time-to-market issues and specially the fact that adding this incredibly complex stuff to a fairly new OS (though some of the tech is in fact quite old) would actually hamper its development greatly.
Once they have their shit together (recently) and much needed optimization has already been done they can think of more arcane stuff, starting with something that gives tangible benefits with minimal cost (XGrid). They are sanely going step by step, once this is ironed out they can go forward.
Bear in mind as well that complete process migration needs a common and stable filesystem space (which enterprise Linux setups have) which JoeSixPack installation don't have (mostly they occasionally do the AppleShare stuff to get their son's DiVX files). Having this in mind, I would first implement a JSP-aware disk sharing which could withstand wizardry such as process migration. Afterwards, go the OpenMosix way...
Back in Europe 10K(i-assume-bytes)/s is a fairly reasonable speed for a long sustained download. Yeah I am in DSL.
Are you willing to pay a "reasonable" price for the bandwith costs associated with the "reasonable" speed downloads of 150KB/s? No, and I do not mean at your end only.
Well, just kidding, actually. I happened to have to develop a 25000+ lines of code project for college. In three months (along with other subjects of course). In Eiffel. It helped a little that there were three of us to complete it.
The professor was the worst I have ever had in my long career. He basically told us: "you must complete this project with this zillion features to pass, it will be coded in a language called Eiffel, it is great, go get some documentation on how to code in it".
It was a coding nightmare, coding 12h *everyday* for the last month. There is simply no other way to code a 25000+ lines project in an unfamiliar lang in so short a time. The bastards gave us a 'C'.
Eiffel might be great and all, but please understand whenever I stand up and deface it.
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I really wish what you say were actually feasible to do.
"one-upping IE on a feature by feature level" - Nearly impossible to do given IE development had (at the time) unlimited funding supported by other-market monopolies (read Office), I mean, you actually believe you and a bunch of corporate coders could do that and fight agains the proven illegal bundling tactics? Come-oh-on!
"selling a low cost, high value Netscape Gold package" - Having such a product means that it would have to have a significant number of interesting features not in the free IE-one-upping browser, which MS would shamelessly copy and include for free in their basic package, which would force you to one-up it again (including your previously "pay" features for free). Recursive algorithm with a simple end: financial death for your company.
Oh, come on! Suppose you were at the helm of NS at the moment, you surely would had managed to save it from irrelevancy against IE.
Regarding the Opera, FireFox and OmniWeb software you mention (which BTW are excellent engineering in all cases), they exist and by sheer cleverness and innovation (and not getting rich either) they manage to survive but nothing else. They are relegated to niche status, *that* is "good-enough" for MS, 'token survival' and then they will leave you alone.
mmm...
Exploding grenade = got a CGI linked off of /.
"Apple AAC" - WRONG: check out DOLBY's AAC licensing page, you'll see the list of licensing prices anyone can pay if he/she so desires and has the funds.
"[...] the problems Apple AAC [...] files do" - pure FUD: which are those problems? State them or shut up.
Certainly no security model other than a complete "1984" will protect from Stupid Users(tm), so this being equal on all systems, let's factor it out of the discussion already.
True remote exploits due to the crappy Windoze security model will kick the butt of the Average-non-stupid-user(tm) whilst the same user on a more security-concious and better overall security design (read MacOSX or Linux) will be safer.
Power-users(tm) are usually safe on any decent enough platform, but you have to agree that is also a factor to be left out of the discussion.
[Insert arguments of IIS vs Apache marketshare and exploits ratio discussion]. This unsecure from unexposure argument is a fallacy and you know it.
"Now Apple is stealing Open Source technology [...]"
Yeah! Just checkout the latest info on bash 3.0. It seems that "Several bug fixes for POSIX compliance came in from Apple; their assistance is appreciated." How about that? AC, being a world class shell scripter, you must surely appreciate this help.
dani++
Yay, and this even without taking into account Firewire 800...
Remember some of the most exciting changes are under da hood.
About time! What are the middlemen value-added services again?
dani++
Remember that Apple was first in USB-ubiquity, Firewire-ubiquity, floppy-less-ubiquity and a long list...
Because of that track record, cut them some slack on this, if they haven't done so yet, there must be plenty of reasons for it.
On the other hand, complaints on the graphics card relative weakness... bear in mind the minor speedup photoshop or parallel number crunching would get with a more high-end GPU, marginal at best. If interested in smoother UT playing, just BTO a better card.
Probably they will be able to claim that their QT installed base has suddenly jumped several dozen million computers...
dani++
Uh, too outstanding to just not comment... I assure you that *not* "choosing" to work with the RIAA to sell mainstream music in the USA (no disrespect to independents) is a sure way of "choosing" to spend a loooong time in jail. Feel free to present us with your mainstream RIAA-free music online store, I will happily send you my money then, but it will be probably all spent feeding your army of lawyers.
dani++
I think not, last time I checked giFT was available...
Now that I mention it, wouldn't it be more easier/feasible/comfortable to just write a plugin for giFT? To avoid and get rid of crappy WIND32 UI mannerisms, avoid GUI porting and just fire Poisoned (or whatever) away?
dani++
I'm sorry, my wallet is not currently compatible with your store.
Napster is currently compatible with MS's flag OS's.
Other OS's are not supported at this time and never will.
If you are planning on getting me to spend my money on this store, the service will not be compatible and you should discontinue trying to do any business with me. If you will support *my* computer and *my* operating system, please continue.
Ah, and MS will eat you for lunch, good luck.
Agreed, but "kids" are also a significant market segment which is not to be overlooked.
"Downloading Songs Off iPod Through The Media Player"
Definitely trivial to implement and handy though there surely are reasons to keep the RIAA hounds happy and this is a nice touch they surely appreciate.
"Support for competing MP3 portables"
Though also handy, it is incompatible with the "at least break even financially" requeriment on the purchased tunes (AFAIK, there is no problem with ripped songs).
"Gapless playback on iPod" Yeah, tough this is an iPod's problem (surely they have taken note of this) and not related to iTunes in anyway.
dani++
thanksovermuch
Maybe. I happen to live in Europe, you mean there's no point in using iTunes? It existed long before there was an iTunes Music Store. It is a great music organizer and CD-ripper which I love using (though there are other good options). I can trivially share my playlists on my LAN too (not so many and not so good other options).
dani++
Please enlighten me as how in Hell iTunes is "pay"? And please call the police as I and a zillion friends have installed iTunes without paying a single dime, I will obligingly surrender (can't speak for my zillion friends).
dani++
I can't wait to read all the apologist crap that's about to be posted here. Let the McFanboy fest begin.
Being free (as in beer or as in speech) doesn't exclude you from being prosecuted if breaking the law. Don't like DMCA? Go lobby your congressman.
If Apple didn't go and prosecute and strong-arm the "little guys" that illegaly (see above) damage its business, it would be a stupid move and be perceived in future lawsuits as "having no interest in protecting its trademarks, etc.".
Apple is only protecting its interests, damaged by people that are acting against the law... how exactly is that "behaving like Microsoft"? I would call that "behaving smartly".
<sarcasm> If some "little guy" mugs you in the street or strips your house bare, it should be your duty to report to the police, however futile. Poverty in the world? Go lobby your congressman. </sarcasm>
Yeah, I have been wondering the same. However, I am sure the longtime UNIX wizards at Apple (remember some come from NeXT) know of such projects.
My bet is that they have thought long and hard on this and it is not yet implemented because of cost, time-to-market issues and specially the fact that adding this incredibly complex stuff to a fairly new OS (though some of the tech is in fact quite old) would actually hamper its development greatly.
Once they have their shit together (recently) and much needed optimization has already been done they can think of more arcane stuff, starting with something that gives tangible benefits with minimal cost (XGrid). They are sanely going step by step, once this is ironed out they can go forward.
Bear in mind as well that complete process migration needs a common and stable filesystem space (which enterprise Linux setups have) which JoeSixPack installation don't have (mostly they occasionally do the AppleShare stuff to get their son's DiVX files). Having this in mind, I would first implement a JSP-aware disk sharing which could withstand wizardry such as process migration. Afterwards, go the OpenMosix way...
dani++
Ummmm... lemme chirp in.
Back in Europe 10K(i-assume-bytes)/s is a fairly reasonable speed for a long sustained download. Yeah I am in DSL.
Are you willing to pay a "reasonable" price for the bandwith costs associated with the "reasonable" speed downloads of 150KB/s? No, and I do not mean at your end only.
In the meantime, you can use this simple AppleScript to solve your woes.
DaNi++
Or one could use the native MacOSX Illustrator implementation.
Just one: it sucks.
No, really.
Well, just kidding, actually. I happened to have to develop a 25000+ lines of code project for college. In three months (along with other subjects of course). In Eiffel. It helped a little that there were three of us to complete it.
The professor was the worst I have ever had in my long career. He basically told us: "you must complete this project with this zillion features to pass, it will be coded in a language called Eiffel, it is great, go get some documentation on how to code in it".
It was a coding nightmare, coding 12h *everyday* for the last month. There is simply no other way to code a 25000+ lines project in an unfamiliar lang in so short a time. The bastards gave us a 'C'.
Eiffel might be great and all, but please understand whenever I stand up and deface it.
There, I had to say it, now I feel better. =)