“Just like Sun’s Java, QuickTime threatened Microsoft’s Windows monopoly by offering a way for developers to build code that was not dependent upon Microsoft,” Daniel Eran writes for RoughlyDrafted.
Eran writes, “However, the real interest in swallowing QuickTime wasn’t so Microsoft could provide its own set of media content tools. Microsoft didn’t even see ‘content authoring’ as a market worth entering; it had other plans in mind… At the time, it appeared that the real money in media was going to be made from Internet streaming and playback, not in content authoring, which still belonged to Apple.”
In 1997, “Microsoft hoped to use its Office monopoly leverage against Apple to not only smash the cross-platform threat of Netscape Navigator and Sun’s Java, but also to kill Apple’s QuickTime,” Eran writes. “Prior to the July 1997 agreement, Microsoft’s Christopher Phillips famously told QuickTime manager Peter Hoddie, ‘we want you to knife the baby.’ Apple refused, and QuickTime survived the Mac Office and patent licensing deal intact. That was not the end of Microsoft’s assault on QuickTime however, but rather only the beginning.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz,” “Formica,” and “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
“I choose Apple because I compared and contrasted Apple and Microsoft on the bases of security, functionality, and elegance.” — @G4Dualie
“If you judge Apple simply by comparing Apple to Microsoft, you really don’t grasp why it is that Apple is succeeding as well as it is.” — @G4Dualie
Let me explain.
I don’t need to point out the faults of Microsoft to justify my choice of Apple. I choose Apple for what it gives me, not because what Microsoft does not provide. Even if Microsoft never existed, I would still choose Apple over any other platform available today.
Neither does pointing out the Microsoft’s flaws give me confidence in my choosing Apple over Microsoft. I am persuaded by my own experiences and my understanding of how my Mac works and how PCs work that I made the correct choice.
In simple terms, one needn’t have to constantly point out that shit sandwiches are neither palatable nor nutritious. One can eat a fine meal and benefit from it without commenting on the rubbish that others may choose to ingest. Many threaders seem irreconcilably insecure about choosing Apple and continually disparaging Microsoft. It seems that many threaders at MDN are more conscious of why they hate Microsoft than why they appreciate Apple.
Do you understand now?