From: mkauspe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> How is Apple NOT proprietary?
Nobody's arguing that Apple is not proprietary in some ways. What we're discussing is if the AAC format Apple uses for its iTunes Music Store is proprietary. The Windoze unthinking sheep media is propagating that it is. The fact of the matter is that AAC is *not* proprietary, it is open source.
In point of fact, the proprietary codec in the audio world is WMA. It is particularly ironic, then, that they would be the ones leading the accusations that Apple is using a "proprietary" format, when the truth is that THEY are the proprietary ones.
I love Apple, but like Bush bashing I am sick of Microsoft bashing.
There are sound reasons to bash Bush. He lies a lot, and he has broken all his promises.
There are sound reasons to bash Microsoft. They lie a lot, they are an abusive monopoly, and they try to FUD other people's products in order to hide their own basic incompetence and poor quality.
Leave the poor windows users alone, they have enough on their hands with ms.blaster and welchia.
They have this problem because they refuse to question the BS that spews forth from Microsoft. By not questioning what they are told, they repeatedly get stuck with shoddy, insecure products that fail to live up to either their advertised claims or even the basic levels of stability and security that Mac users have enjoyed for *years.*
Questioning claims that don't appear to be true instead of blindly accepting what radio talk show hosts ... sorry, heads of companies ... tell you is a GOOD THING. It's the sign of a functioning brain.
All my HD space I used in my PC for MP3's (over 6k of them) is going to my G4 because I love iTunes and I love my Mac! Sorry to geting on someone's bad side for partially supporting MS (God forbid).
I praise MS where I think they deserve praise. There have been various times where MS Word was flat-out the best word processor for any platform. Excel is still the leader of its field when it comes to spreadsheets, and Microsoft deserves the success they've had with that and Powerpoint. Entourage (the Mac OS X email client from MS) is so vastly superior to Outlook Express that it's hard to believe they came from the same company.
But just as Apple gets a lot of praise *and* brickbats from its' intelligent, thoughtful user base, so too would MS benefit greatly by not training their users to be treating like unthinking sheep. Look how long it has taken MS to even *begin* to take the security of their users' computers as a serious issue ... basically they ignored it until it became so large a problem that it was costing them sales.
Look at spam. Microsoft has the power to STOP SPAM STONE COLD DEAD due to their overwhelming marketshare. If all their products blocked spam as effectively as Apple's Mail client, or if they would build the best spam filtering into every mail server they set up, most people would barely know spam exists. Notice how they have chosen NOT to use their monopoly power for this GOOD and instead are frequently fingered as a huge part of the problem.
being a PC tech does not make me a bad person instead it keeps me employed!
Does it not bother you that the only *reason* being a PC tech is such secure employment is because Microsoft make shoddy, insecure, poorly-written, malfunctioning software that users find difficult to operate and easy to damage?
I'm not saying you should change careers, far from it! But I *am* saying that there's a reason being a PC tech "keeps you employed," and that your job security DEPENDS on Microsoft continuing to abuse their customers' goodwill and maintain through any means necessary (including illegal ones) their monopoly of mediocrity.
So, let's review: your fundamental claim (that Apple is proprietary) is irrelevant to the actual discussion, and what you see as "bashing" is actually based on sound logical reasoning -- something that seems to be in short supply both in Redmond and at 1600 Penn Avenue.
Maybe you should spend a little time thinking through some of the reasoning BEHIND the "bashing" rather than just dismissing it out of hand. I think you'd find it quite enlightening.
_Chas_
Claiming that the Macintosh is inferior to Windows because most people use Windows is like saying that all other restaurants are inferior to McDonald's.
-- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and...
Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! |
Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html>
iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/>
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Think Different Store
http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
