Re: Pirates of Silicon Valley

[Gabriel Morales <Togega@Concentric.net>]

Steve Mentzer wrote:

> And while I do find an occasional quirk, the programs are far from being "bug 
> filled". Well, they aren't any buggier than other application suites available.

	I remember a bug in the Mac version of MS Office that dumped the System
folder in the trash.- This from the dominant OS company. (http://www.crn.com/print-archive/19980413/784softw103.asp)

> I don't write software for the Mac, nor will I ever. Microsoft supports the 
> developers and the developers write the software. Are you saying that microsoft 
> is at fault for making my job as a developer easier????

	It would be silly for Microsoft NOT to "make it easy". They have more
than enough resources. Apple DOES support its developers, however. In
fact, Apple has made it a whole lot easier for programmers recently.
Just a look at http://developer.apple.com/macos/intro.html makes this is evident.
 
sheercon@earthlink.net wrote:

> Microsoft has even bought software companies to insure that the software would not be 
> written for any other platform.

Steve Mentzer naively asked:

> Really, like who?

Go to http://www.vcnet.com/bms/departments/catalog/catalog.shtml and see
if that answers your question.

> Bottom line: The MacOS has lagged behind technically for YEARS. A good GUI 
> doesn't make a better OS. If that was the case, then linux should be considered 
> to be a big pile of donkey dung.

	The Mac OS has lagged behind on >technicalities<, it actually works
much better than Windows does with its many "features" most of the time.
Even this is gap is being filled quickly, though, as the Mac OS leaps
forward into the future and leaves Windows FAR, FAR behind (Memory
Protection: http://www.MacKiDo.com/Myths/memoryprotection.html,
Multitasking: http://www.MacKiDo.com/Myths/mt.html)

	A good OS also needs a good interface, otherwise it becomes less
practical and less useful.

> What a load of crap. Nag messages, yes. Making IE the default browser 
> automatically ... yes. But saying that IE can indiscriminately kill Netscape 
> while running is absurd. 
> 
> Netscrape crashes fine all by itself... that is why I use IE.

	Wait- I seem to remember reading about some mysterious problems with
using DR-DOS with Windows. But hey, that's not all- Microsoft integrated
DOS & Windows later on. (http://194.159.40.109/30079802.htm) What a
strange coincidence that Netscape has trouble running on Windows and
that now MS's own WWW browser is integrated with the system, eh?
Interesting parallels here. 

sheercon@earthlink.net wrote:

> That's the thing - there isn't any competition. Microsoft destroys or buys out any
> company if there is even a hint that they might be a competitor. They don't play
> "fair"; and by that I mean they break the law - as this current anti-monopoly
> lawsuit the Government has filed against them will show. Remember what happened to
> Standard Oil and Rockefeller?

Steve Mentzer wrote:

> Names please.....
> 
> or are you just repeating the standard media hype....
> 
> I thought so...

	It's not media hype, in fact, the media usually seems to >support<
Microsoft. If you've gone to
http://www.vcnet.com/bms/departments/catalog/catalog.shtml you've seen
the names.

	Is this a bias site? Probably- but with reason to be. All that
information isn't just "made up", it's real and most of it pretty self-evident.

> And as the demands of desktop applications increased (as they have 
> trememndously under intel/Windoze platforms), the MacOS would have died a slow, 
> painful death....

Oh really?! And how do you reason this out when the Macintosh is STILL
the preferred platform for graphics-creation and editing software?

Someone (?) wrote:

>In general, all the parts of an installation are placed with an
application in 
>its folder. I was asked by someone why there isn't and uninstaller
bundled with 
>the MacOS, and when I showed that that all you have to do to delete a
program \
>from the machine was to delete its folder and it preferences, they were amazed.

Steve Mentzer wrote:

>You and I both know that this is NOT always the case with mac software.
Stop 
>trying to whitewash the issue.

	No, but it is >usually< the case. That some (Windows) programmers have
decided to write sloppy applications for the Mac with dozens of files
all over the place does not mean that most other Mac software is like
that or as bad as Windows is.

	DLLs, Config.sys files and all that trash are leftovers that that the
Mac has successfully steered away from, giving users easier, less
complicated ways of setting preferences and identifying and manipulating files.

	Windows is much more complicated and interdependent upon stray files. A
single misplaced or misconfigured file can cause a cascade effect to
occur and make the OS unusable. The Mac OS is much more wisely designed
and harder to corrupt accidentally.

> The MacOS was not a technical marvel....

	And Windows was or is? The Mac OS had and has many user-interface
problems figured out as well as the Y2k bug long before Windows had or will.

	Windows is not a technical marvel either, unless one considers the
unnecessary complexity...

> Money is what it is all about bud..... get used to it.

	No, it's not "what it is all about", or at least it's not what it should
be about. There are other matters more important, such as quality,
originality, pride and honest hard work put into one's products. I, for
one, appreciate these things- and there are others who also put these
things above monetary gain.

	But I do agree that if you know how to play the game, for the good or
for the bad, you can get be >economically< successful. And Microsoft knows
how to play the game really well. Unfortunately, that's about all it
knows how to do well.