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Tim Smith wrote:
> In article <14WdnTs5XOUeVFbcRVn-3w@comcast.com>,
> Michael <NOSPAM_Lin_mukai@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>Im sorry, but the fact is that while Microsoft over the years has had
>>few ideas to call their own that they could be proud of, Apple has been
>>an innovator since their inception in somebody's garage. The iPod is
>
>
> I've seen almost no publications in scientific or technical journals or
> conference proceedings from Apple. There's plenty from Microsoft. Some
> of the top people in various areas of mathematics and computer science
> are at MS Research. Who is at Apple Research? Answer: no one--they
> were all laid off many many years ago. What Apple has now is simply
> solid engineering combined with good industrial design and style. But
> innovative, at least in the sense of actually advancing human knowledge
> with new ideas? Nope.
In my comment above the point was that Apple has produced many
innovative products over the years whereas in contrast Microsoft has
not. Where Apple has produced many models of ever improving computers
and peripherals over the years along with the software to go with them,
Microsoft has only developed software primarily. And where Apple was
first to introduce a graphical OS to personal computer users, Microsoft
was a distant second. In terms of desktop features and design, many
features seen in Windows today, made their first appearance in Apple's
operating systems. And even today, while Apple has moved ahead and
married their elegant interface to the rock solid, reliable and secure
UNIX operating system (ok BSD), Microsoft continues to regulary patch
thier poorly designed Windows to fix the endless parade of security
flaws that continue to rear their ugly heads on an all too regular
basis. The very successful Apple iPod is just the lastest example of
innovation from Apple. And prior to that it was the iMac line of computers.
I'm sorry, but who you have working in your research dept. does not
define how innovative your companies products are and certainly does not
change the history of these two companies when compared side by side in
terms of what they have actually brought to market over the years.
As someone who has worked in speech recognition development for example,
I can tell you that Microsoft some time ago spent a great deal of money
hiring some of the best and brightest talent in that area to work for
them. But in the meantime, they have not shipped anything worthy of
note. In fact, I do not think they have shipped anything at all.
Meantime, Dragon Systems has released some very impressive speech
recognition software and has actually been doing so for a good number of
years now. Who would you call an innovator? Dragon Systems who actually
brought the power to create text documents on computers to people who
because of disability could in no other way ever write? Or do you think
that the Microsoft think tank folks in the speech area should be called
the innovators?
Research is all well and good and of course needed. But research groups
do not define whether a company ought to be considered innovative or
not. I don't care if they are furthering human knowlege or not. That
knowlege is essentially useless until you put it to work and actually
produce something that benefits people. In my book, performance is
measured in terms of tangible results, as is innovation.
Tell me, what has Microsoft invented? MS-DOS? Well I guess. But of
course it was preceded by CPM and better still of course, UNIX. Windows?
Well, sort of. Except windowed interfaces for PCs were really pioneered
in Palo Alt Research and the first commercial implementation on personal
computers was done by Apple. Internet Explorer? Well, not really. They
got the source code for that from an already established browser and
Netscape was the first commercially successful browser until Microsoft
bundled IE free with Windows and killed them. Computer hardware of any
kind, like say the iMac which I think most would agree was an innovative
product, particularly the first ones? Umm, nope not really unless you
want to give them credit for making mice and keyboards but of course
they didn't invent those although I will give them credit for producing
decent ones. Has Microsoft created any kind of portable music player
like the iPod? Nope. Can they really compare to Apple in terms of
producing innovative products. Well, I don't think so myself.
And as far as advancing the knowlege of mankind goes, just what has
Microsoft actually accomplished to this end that is of any real value
today at all? At least the collective minds working on Linux have
something of real value to show for thier efforts. Ditto for the good
folks at Mozilla. Microsoft does have competeting products in these
areas but unfortunately, they are inferior. Yes, one could argue that
Windows XP has a more polished interface than say KDE on Linux (and that
is a debatable point) but unfortunately, under the covers Windows fails
in many areas particularly in terms of security, where Linux shines.
Do you really believe there is no R&D at Apple? Do you think Steve Jobs
just sits in his office and says to his staff, "OK guys, I just had a
great idea called iMac. Here it is, now go build them. Oh, and when you
get done with that I want you to start manufacturing something else
we're going to call the iPod." Give me a break. Of course they have R&D
at Apple. These products don't just invent themselves. And what about OS
X? Do you think that just created itself? Who designed that interface
and the marriage between it and BSD? Was than an immaculate conception
or something?
>
>>just the latest example of this. Why should they support WMA? Why should
>>anyone? We already had standards. But as is usual for Microcrap they
>>then create a new format that is completely incompatible with everything
>>else under the sun and then given their OS monopoly foist it on their
>>users. What was wrong with mp3? Ummm, nothing? Did we need WMA? Umm, nope.
>
>
> Sounds like AAC/Fairplay. Let's compare: WMA is compatible with almost
> every portable player except iPod. AAC/Fairplay is compatible with just
> iPod.
OK, and why does every other player support WMA? Because Microsoft built
it into Windows so to speak when it became the default format for their
media player. So when Creative Labs and the rest of them want to sell
Portable players to the Windows using masses of course they need to
support WMA. That hardly means WMA ever needed to come into existence.
I'm glad the iPod does not support WMA. There's no need. My daughter is
a Windows user with an iPod and this has caused her no inconvenience
whatsoever. I plan to get an iPod myself. But I would never pollute it
with WMA files even if it would accept them.
>
>>I am still hoping that we someday all move to Linux and that free
>>software drives MS under the way they did WordPerfect, Ashton-Tate,
>>Borland and so many others. As Linux matures and improves it's going to
>>be increasingly hard for them to compete with software that becomes
>>superior and is free. The underlying OS already is superior. It's just a
>>matter of time for the desktop and applications to come up to snuff.
>
>
> Too bad music from the iTunes Music Store won't play on Linux, unless
> you track down a hack to get past Apple's proprietary copy protection.
>
Actually, iTunes does work in Linux with a product called
Crossover-Office by a company called Codeweavers. Word, Excel and a
number of other Windows applications run in Linux as well with this same
product. Not that I would want to run those mind you, but for those who
need them the opportunity to use them in Linux exists today.
Many of today's most popular PC game titles run in Linux now too with a
product called Cedega that translates DirectX9 calls to OpenGL calls.
Although it's still best to keep a partition running Windows available
with a dual boot setup for PC gamers to ensure they can play anything
they want to. World of Warcraft and EverQuest play perfectly in Linux
with Cedega for example from what I understand. EQ2 does not yet but it
too probably will soon would be my guess.
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