That's because of the deal that was made, nearly six years ago now, in which Microsoft provided some cash to Apple and started a five-year contractual partnership between the two companies. Both Microsoft and Apple were cooperating with each other's systems for a while -- it's the reason why the Office suite for Mac got much better with Office 98 and later version (not to mention that Microsoft itself said that Office v.X was better than Office 2001!).
At any rate, part of the deal was that Apple started shipping copies of Internet Explorer pre-installed on all computers they sold. At least to start with, they also included Netscape 4 pre-installed, too -- IIRC. But Netscape took nearly two years to come out with a version for OS X (other than Mozilla), Microsoft was unusually responsive in coming out with IE for OS X. And I will readily admit that when it came out, for that first year or so IE was definitely the best browser out there for OS X.
(Most people fail to realize that IE for Mac is a completely different beast than IE for Windows, and has been since practically the very beginning. This is mainly because of the ways in which they integrate IE into the system architecture on the Windows side, which naturally can't be done and is totally unnecessary on the Mac side. So IE for Mac had a completely different setup from its Windows counterpart. I don't know just HOW different -- they probably didn't rebuild the application from the ground up for the Mac, but there were some major changes to the underlying architecture.)
I think that some people are missing the problems here. iTunes has THREE separate but related functions -- first, to play audio files; second, to store them on your hard drive and portable music player (if you have one); and third, to facilitate the purchase of music through the iTunes Music Store.
The first one is a no-brainer. It's simple to play music, and that's not what Apple's concerned about.
The second and the third reasons go VERY closely together, for the very reason that there are lawsuits galore coming from the RIAA these days -- wide distribution of music online. The whole point of iTunes for Windows is to serve as a portal to the iTunes Music Store. And once you've purchased some music online, the music has to be prevented from being distributed in a totally unrestrained fashion.
I'm not sure about just how the other portable music players work, but I'm fairly certain that they've got software that doesn't recognize the AAC/M4A file format, which is the very thing that makes the limited DRM that Apple employs possible. Therefore, allowing iTunes to work with any other player right from the start would be pointless, not to mention that it would also jeopardize the DRM that is the only thing allaying the music industry's paranoia concerning the new method of music sales pioneered by the iTunes Music Store.
And that doesn't even raise the issue of how iTunes might interface with the multitudes of portable music players out there, anyway. I would guess that they could probably end up using Windows Media Player, but knowing Apple's desire for quality software, that automatically eliminates that option! Joking aside, though, there still needs to be a solid method for iTunes to connect and support ALL music with DRM included, and that is very likely to take some time, for Apple to coordinate with the many other companies that make the hardware. I'd hardly blame Apple for launching a product that works with their own products first and foremost, and then later makes sure that it works with everyone else's products. The main point of the iTunes for Windows, after all, is access to the iTunes Music Store.
Nahh, Delaware only has one decent golf course, up at the DuPont Country Club.
At any rate, seeing as how Delaware has a lot of companies incorporated here (tax incentives, and so forth), the corporate judges are pretty experienced with handling this sort of thing. I've been reading about all sorts of corporate wrangling in the courts over the years. It's about the only thing that really puts my home state on the map.;-)
Yeah -- someday, when we start harvesting diamonds from the erstwhile core of Jupiter, some of it will be radioactive with all that plutonium we dumped in!
Well, yeah. Like how my site got taken offline for a full 16 days after someone in a reply linked directly to a 600 KB image on my server. My entire monthly bandwidth quota of 6 GB was consumed in just 12 hours, and I couldn't afford to pay any overage fees, so my site languished for the rest of the month.
I've taken precautions since then... mod_rewrite is a godsend! 'Course it won't deflect the tidal wave completely -- but like any good sea wall, it provides decent protection for all but the most massive floods.
Otherwise, your visitors will be redirected to that page every time they try to visit any page in your site, and will never be able to access anything.
Slashdot Mirror
That's because of the deal that was made, nearly six years ago now, in which Microsoft provided some cash to Apple and started a five-year contractual partnership between the two companies. Both Microsoft and Apple were cooperating with each other's systems for a while -- it's the reason why the Office suite for Mac got much better with Office 98 and later version (not to mention that Microsoft itself said that Office v.X was better than Office 2001!).
At any rate, part of the deal was that Apple started shipping copies of Internet Explorer pre-installed on all computers they sold. At least to start with, they also included Netscape 4 pre-installed, too -- IIRC. But Netscape took nearly two years to come out with a version for OS X (other than Mozilla), Microsoft was unusually responsive in coming out with IE for OS X. And I will readily admit that when it came out, for that first year or so IE was definitely the best browser out there for OS X.
(Most people fail to realize that IE for Mac is a completely different beast than IE for Windows, and has been since practically the very beginning. This is mainly because of the ways in which they integrate IE into the system architecture on the Windows side, which naturally can't be done and is totally unnecessary on the Mac side. So IE for Mac had a completely different setup from its Windows counterpart. I don't know just HOW different -- they probably didn't rebuild the application from the ground up for the Mac, but there were some major changes to the underlying architecture.)
I think that some people are missing the problems here. iTunes has THREE separate but related functions -- first, to play audio files; second, to store them on your hard drive and portable music player (if you have one); and third, to facilitate the purchase of music through the iTunes Music Store.
The first one is a no-brainer. It's simple to play music, and that's not what Apple's concerned about.
The second and the third reasons go VERY closely together, for the very reason that there are lawsuits galore coming from the RIAA these days -- wide distribution of music online. The whole point of iTunes for Windows is to serve as a portal to the iTunes Music Store. And once you've purchased some music online, the music has to be prevented from being distributed in a totally unrestrained fashion.
I'm not sure about just how the other portable music players work, but I'm fairly certain that they've got software that doesn't recognize the AAC/M4A file format, which is the very thing that makes the limited DRM that Apple employs possible. Therefore, allowing iTunes to work with any other player right from the start would be pointless, not to mention that it would also jeopardize the DRM that is the only thing allaying the music industry's paranoia concerning the new method of music sales pioneered by the iTunes Music Store.
And that doesn't even raise the issue of how iTunes might interface with the multitudes of portable music players out there, anyway. I would guess that they could probably end up using Windows Media Player, but knowing Apple's desire for quality software, that automatically eliminates that option! Joking aside, though, there still needs to be a solid method for iTunes to connect and support ALL music with DRM included, and that is very likely to take some time, for Apple to coordinate with the many other companies that make the hardware. I'd hardly blame Apple for launching a product that works with their own products first and foremost, and then later makes sure that it works with everyone else's products. The main point of the iTunes for Windows, after all, is access to the iTunes Music Store.
"This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Heh.
Nahh, Delaware only has one decent golf course, up at the DuPont Country Club. At any rate, seeing as how Delaware has a lot of companies incorporated here (tax incentives, and so forth), the corporate judges are pretty experienced with handling this sort of thing. I've been reading about all sorts of corporate wrangling in the courts over the years. It's about the only thing that really puts my home state on the map. ;-)
Yeah -- someday, when we start harvesting diamonds from the erstwhile core of Jupiter, some of it will be radioactive with all that plutonium we dumped in!
Anyone know an easy way to get out to Jupiter, blow up the planet, and harvest some materials from Mount Zeus?
;-)
Lucy is here!
Well, yeah. Like how my site got taken offline for a full 16 days after someone in a reply linked directly to a 600 KB image on my server. My entire monthly bandwidth quota of 6 GB was consumed in just 12 hours, and I couldn't afford to pay any overage fees, so my site languished for the rest of the month.
I've taken precautions since then... mod_rewrite is a godsend! 'Course it won't deflect the tidal wave completely -- but like any good sea wall, it provides decent protection for all but the most massive floods.
You might want to add an extra line to that rule:
Otherwise, your visitors will be redirected to that page every time they try to visit any page in your site, and will never be able to access anything.
Unless, of course, that's what you WANT...