“It’s kind of funny how some people can arbitrarily apply the same principles to different people or organizations in different ways without feeling hypocritical at all. Take, for example, the hordes of Microsoft supporters who have written over the years complaining about how I take the software giant to task. I was badgered for my belief that the company had crushed progress,” Dwayne Fatherree writes in his article, “Microsoft has tendency to bleed its partners dry” for The Herald-Tribune. “‘Oh no,’ I was told. Microsoft is good. ‘They come up with brilliant ideas and execute them well.’ Well, once again the followers of Gates are being accused of stealing those brilliant ideas from a smaller company, then ditching the supposed partner after sucking its brain dry.”
Fatherree then describes Microsoft’s dispute over video streaming technology with Burst.com. Fatherree then chronicles past Microsoft dealings with other companies, including Apple, “Now, if we were talking about a petty criminal and not a megalithic corporation, Microsoft would already be under the jail. The Windows software that is ubiquitous now didn’t yet exist when Microsoft partnered briefly with Apple. After a short time the partnership foundered and Windows was born, looking eerily like Apple’s own MacIntosh [sic] operating system… So beware. If Bill Gates offers to partner with you, even at golf, be very, very careful. Your brain could be the vampire’s next lunch.”
Full article here.
Join the bandwagon, guys.
I like PC, I just don’t like anything and everything MS!
They are true thieves…what did they ever innovate? Let’s see…the automatic underline when you miss spell in Word…but wait, Word is copied from MacWrite….
If you look closely, the Mt. Redmond is built with little stolen goods.
Repent!
Interesting article. He’s lacking in a little of the backup, but the essence appears to be true.
It’s a good lesson that logic doesn’t count for much in the legal world. It it did, Microsoft would have lost the case against it for stealing ideas and designs from Apple for Windows. Anyone can see the amazing similarities.
Anyway, while it’s good to see more and more of this type of reporting, I wonder if anyone besides the Mac faithful pay much attention.
Jeff: I do not know whether others are paying attention or not. I just hope that it is not *just* fashion to point the finger at Redmont and that these are the prodomes of a true awakening.
Come on, Microsoft DID NOT steal ideas from Apple.
Apple’s desktop icons are on the right, but Microsoft puts them on THE LEFT! Hardly theft people.
“Dancer is” 100% correct, and what is sad is that most Windows users don’t realize how much was stolen, and who is the true innovator. For a brief history lesson, read this…
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacWrite
If you take away Apple’s innovations from any of the current/popular Wintel boxes, such as …
� A graphical user interface, icons, a desktop, etc.
� The use of a mouse or other pointing device in personal computing (later, the standardization of an optical mouse on all desktop machines)
� WYSIWYG text and graphics editing (“what you see is what you get”)
� Long file names (originally 31 characters, now 255)
� The PostScript laser printer
� Desktop publishing
� The SCSI interface
� Audio (both speakers and microphone) as a standard feature
� A CD-ROM drive as a standard feature
� Windows that may span multiple monitors
� Ethernet support as standard feature
� FireWire, also known as IEEE 1394 or iLink (Sony)
� AirPort wireless networking, also known as IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g
� The introduction of the 3.5″ floppy disk as a standard feature (Macintosh, 1984)
� The abandonment of the floppy disk (iMac August 1998 and Power Macintosh G3 Blue & White January 1999)
� The first commercially available computer to feature USB for peripheral connection.
� A modern RISC-based architecture in the form of the PowerPC processor, developed jointly by Apple, IBM and Motorola (Power Macintosh 6100, 1994)
� Aesthetic and ergonomical industrial design
…then what do you have left? Probably a beige box running DOS.
And the MOST important item that Microsoft didn’t steal was Apple’s level of security. But, this is probably because it is impossible to steal “caring” and “quality”…and it shows.
(Thanks to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Macintosh for the list!)
Uh you left out the Rubber Ducky in XP that was already in OS X.
LOL! Rubber Ducky…ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha…..that’s great!
Good article. I totally agree with the author’s assertion that MS hampers the state of technology. Just imagine if they’d put all their resources toward actually making quality products and pushing the boundaries of technological progress as opposed to just making money, and controlling the universe. I once read that a man in Greece actually invented the first steam engine around 300 B.C. (I could be wrong about the date) but they didn’t know what to do with it, and thought it was useless so it just disappeared. The article said that had they put it to use in the ways that we know of today, the industrial revolution would have taken place 2000 years ago, and think about where that would have put us now. I sometimes wonder if MS is putting us in a similar situation today by allowing greed to rule over the progress of technology.
OK, OK, but have you seen the REAL innovations in Longhorn? Like blue desktop pictures with curving streaks!
A minor note of Silicon Valley history though: traditionally, zombies eat brains.
Yes. The only fault with Mr. Fatherree’s op-ed is the misnomer in vampire.
Vampires suck blood. Zombies eat brains. M$ does both.
All three leech the life-force from others. Only, vampires and M$ can mesmorize their next victims with seductive apperances. While M$ and Zombies callously leave spent carcasses.
M$ could hence be classified as Zompires – not to be confused with CronoTrigger’s Zombor.
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Nagromme:
Perhaps this is another example of MS’s innovation – they have create brain eating vampires!
OMGGATESRULZ!!!!!!!!!!111
You got that right. Once bitten by MS, you turn into a PC fanboy or a CTO and Gates becomes your Supreme Demonic Priest you have to worship by ritual burning all computers without Windows.
Hey, what about the dancing paper clip that pops up and tells you that you just did something the non-windows-way and forces you click it away.
Is not that a Microsoft innovation?
There is always BOB.
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