Apple

[gingerjedi]

I'm not suggesting that only developers can have an opinion. I genuinely wanted to know what the problem was.

There's no problem: 'APPLE TO FIX MALFUNCTIONING iPAD CUSTOMERS'

[VectraMan]

Whatever you think of Microsoft, they never sought to prevent other people from writing software for their platform. In fact, they enouraged it, which was exactly what made Microsoft as dominant as it is.

I guess I am biased, as a software developer. I'm worried that with all the trendoids lining up to praise Apple, there's a danger that Apple will ultimately win. And then we'll all be screwed. There'll be no choice anywhere, no independent software, no open source, no open standards, and we'll all just be sad old men getting together in the Job Centre once a week, and talking about the good old days of Microsoft's monopoly.

[Sysman]

My point is that Apple are only doing what most other suppliers do. The Apple platforms are not "open".

Long before I got an Apple I always had to live with the idea that unsupported APIs are, well unsupported.

It's the same on the hardware front. Microsoft created a huge headache for themselves trying support every single piece of kit; Apple in contrast get to test their software on known combinations of hardware.

[expat]

Isn't the point that Microsoft make an OS and a lot of software; Apple sell systems? So you would expect to find MS working with loads of independent apps, and on loads of hardware, and having a dominant position in their market; and Apple's systems being run on a tight leash, with their parts working together better, with a lesser market share but more enthusiastic users.

It's like comparing apples with durians.

[snaw]

It's the same on the hardware front. Microsoft created a huge headache for themselves trying support every single piece of kit; Apple in contrast get to test their software on known combinations of hardware.

And how did that one turn out in the end (Apart from the huge headache and stacks of cash)?

[Churchill]

Whatever you think of Microsoft, they never sought to prevent other people from writing software for their platform. In fact, they enouraged it, which was exactly what made Microsoft as dominant as it is.

Not true. There used to be a whole suite of Windows APIs that non microsoft personnel didn't have access to. Thankfully those days are in the past - or are they?

Long before I got an Apple I always had to live with the idea that unsupported APIs are, well unsupported.

It's the same on the hardware front. Microsoft created a huge headache for themselves trying support every single piece of kit; Apple in contrast get to test their software on known combinations of hardware.

That's pretty much what IBM tried to do with their version of OS/2 only being supported on IBM hardware.

[snaw]

with a lesser market share but more enthusiastic users.

Brainwashed disciples

[expat]

Brainwashed disciples

More of those too.

[VectraMan]

Not true. There used to be a whole suite of Windows APIs that non microsoft personnel didn't have access to. Thankfully those days are in the past - or are they?

Private APIs don't prevent other people writing software for your platform. I don't know what was in them (there was a book about it IIRC), but it's hard to see what advantage MS would have had in Office, for example, by knowing about some extra API calls. It's not like Office can do things that other apps can't.

On the other hand, the whole issue with the alledged CPU bloat of Flash on the Mac comes down to the inability of Flash to do hardware stretching of the video full screen. Not because Adobe can't do it, or because Adobe don't want to do it, but because Apple don't provide a public API to do it. Apple have deliberately knobbled their own platform to make independent software look bad, compared to their own players.

[Churchill]

Private APIs don't prevent other people writing software for your platform. I don't know what was in them (there was a book about it IIRC), but it's hard to see what advantage MS would have had in Office, for example, by knowing about some extra API calls. It's not like Office can do things that other apps can't.

On the other hand, the whole issue with the alledged CPU bloat of Flash on the Mac comes down to the inability of Flash to do hardware stretching of the video full screen. Not because Adobe can't do it, or because Adobe don't want to do it, but because Apple don't provide a public API to do it. Apple have deliberately knobbled their own platform to make independent software look bad, compared to their own players.

I agree.