You can easily post a thread asking if Apple’s business practices are unethical, and why? Because Apple does the same shit. They lobby for favors from Congress. They use the software patent crap as a means to stifle competitors, and etc. So, I’m not going to bash or prop up Microsoft, but I’m going to say this, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
Apple is far more offensive, imo, considering how well they’ve managed to mask both proprietary hardware & software lock-in behind their “gee-goly, we just make things simple so they work” hipster marketing image, but even the most die-hard defenders have seen what pure balderdash Apple really is with the utter flop that was the “I-Pad”.
They can definitely count out anyone from Boston or Jersey buying an “I-Pad” since they already have “I-Pod’s”; you’d think such a politically correct hipsterish company would be more intelligent with such attempts.
M$'s is a bit different, & their plans often have more nuance for the long-term (apple is more about keeping current in trying to keep the wave riding for a new hip thing, M$ plays catch-up to whatever catches on & sticks, see Win7).
Their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish strategy is usually hidden behind the marketing image of trying to continually improve a product (Windows), with the successes (WinXp, Windows 2000) highlighted, praised, & referenced, & their failures (WinMe, Vista, Win98) abnormally chided, not mentioned, & reviled, that the everyday joe tends to use (no thanks to previous business practices with IBM in the past).
More perniciously, they consciously turn a blind-eye to pirating of their OS as an invisible social-proprietary lock-in (if it’s easier to download, burn & install a pirated copy of Windows, which may be customized & free, what’s the point in learning Linux, really?).
I would feel guilty running this customized copy of Win2k3 if I didn’t already mess around & learn Linux on my laptop, & intend on unlocking my Droid at some point to start learning how to use that (which will most likely become what I use for a cheap laptop in the next 3 years).
Ubuntu, imo, is already facing possible co-opt, per Mono. If Google weren’t around, I would fear severely for the linux community, whom have to keep a keen eye on involvement with either of these giants.
However, I fear Google will eventually force Apple & Microsoft down the line to become more or less allies, & the geek inside of me does not sleep at night thinking what those two combined would come up with.
Not to give gloom to open-source, there is plenty of options that aren yet widely popular (the BSD’s, ReactOS, Solaris, other Unix based systems, etc.). I’m just saying open source will probably never go mainstream to the effect Windows & apple are, short of someone blowing up the allotted buildings for a reset.
I largley view the two current juggernauts as useful idiots that will eventually run out of steam, with the little good ideas they came up with being carried on later in other operating systems. I do think Android + ARM chips will make a sort of post Apple & MS market, though, starting with ridiculously cheap netbooks.
ChomeOS is going to revolutionize netbooks, a large section of laptops, and most home users. Basically all users that don’t do special things that can’t be done on the web. And who knows what they’ll come up with for those other uses.
Google Chrome OS Demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANMrzw7JFzA
Chromium OS Fast Boot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTFfl7AjNfI
- Very fast
- Easy
- Safe
Many years ago my parents got suckered into buying an Apple II E. I think it was around 1990. It costs over 2 grand and DIDN’T HAVE A HARD DRIVE! Then they had the nerve to ask for another grand for an external hard drive. Apple may be more reliable but they rip you hard if you need any hardware upgrades.
Never said they were reliable, & they purposely lock people in by making it hard to upgrade parts beyond buying another computer, or buying all options at sale.
The Hackintosh community represents a user backlash against this nonsense, however.