I agree with that rthompson, what people don't realize about either dominant nor monopoly companies is that they are only in that position because consumers let them. the very same people who write about Microsofts "unfair business practices" and "monopoly" are often ironically using Microsoft Word on a MS system.
the thing is- they'll complain about bugs and issues with windows and MS products, and yet when they encounter a bug in an alternative program, they pretty much shrug it off.
They also have the best Windows Development environment in the form of Visual Studio; although that's been true for years.
Microsoft has moved the tech industry forward more then anybody can guess.
Take Java, for example; it uses bytecode that runs on any VM. Excellent, that gives portability.
But- how many people know that Microsoft C for DOS can compile to "P-code" which is a bytecode that runs on a P-code VM? And this was in the late eighties.
The very concept of "shared code" came into realization only with Microsoft's help; other companies managed to make messy "overlays" and other strange concepts, but when MS made windows it was a very modular design, much different from competing desktop systems. It was far easier to program in, since it was well documented and had a very comprehensive SDK.
Do people forget this? It doesn't matter how great your operating system is if it doesn't have any programs to run. Microsoft knew this, and made sure to try to make programming windows applications as easy as possible, a goal they continue to pursue- Visual Basic makes it nearly effortless to make trivial applications, and takes a lot of the messy GUI code out of the picture. with the introduction of the .NET framework, vast swathes of code that would otherwise be duplicated by countless programmers is available in one place. Sure, eve I complain about the size of the .NET framework; but it is installed ONCE; whereas, programs that duplicate code that would be in the framework might add up to three or even four times the size of the .NET framework in duplicate code. There is no doubt that they continue to strive for a Operating System that is not only easier to use, but also easier to program for, and the latter breeds the former in the way of program consistency. Anybody ever consider that the File,Edit,View,Help, etc standard menus, and the standard shortcut keys for common operation, were hardly used until MS made it part of the logo requirements?
My biggest beef is that people complain that MS is "stealing" from apple.
This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard; the original complaints of this nature originated with windows 95 and System 7, the recycle bin was errily similar to the trash.
So what? Who cares? they run on different freaking platforms, for god's sake, and there is no way that MS copied any code whatsoever from the Mac OS... Oh! Of course, it was the "idea" that was stolen.
Here's the problem. Software patents are one of the stupidest things ever thought up by a sentient being. Copyrights on the source code itself are something I think is good- but to make it impossible for somebody to build, from scratch, a similar system to yours on their own without prior permission is ludicrous, since it puts a stop to progress.
Can you imagine if Apple had WON that lawsuit? Windows would be nothing like it is today, and would look awful. No recycle bin- god knows what alternative would crop up- heck, we wouldn't even have Control-C,Control-V, and Control-X, nope, we'd have to deal with Control-Shift-Insert,Shift-Insert and Shift-Delete... and of course, we wouldn't even have windows to begin with, remember, windows are square. Dear gawd! windows on the Mac OS are square too. COPIERS! so of course MS would have had to choose some other shape for their windows. and god forbid they include controls on those windows that perform window management functions, since that's copying Apple too.
the very fact is, IMO it's a inalienable right to all creative minds that they be allowed to think about the uses of these "ideas" and improve upon them.
You know what happened when MS "copied" menus the first time?
they improved them. the original Apple menus had no concept of a "submenu"- that is, only one drop-down was possible. this was possible in windows. So Apple added it to System 7.
Anybody wonder if this would have EVER been added if MS didn't analyze the idea Apple had and improve upon it's features? Why is this copying?
To forbid copying of ideas is to support the monopolization of them. And we've already thoroughly discussed the problem with monopolies.
