There are probably lots and lots of lawsuits going on every day in the technology world, and generally, they are quite uninteresting to all of us. Exceptions exist, of course, and the case of Apple and PsyStar is definitely one of them. It's a lawsuit that could test one of the most debated issues in the world of software: the EULA issue. To refresh your memory: PsyStar started offering Macintosh clones earlier this year, which caused quite the uproar in the Mac community. Apple was silent on the issue at first, but a few weeks ago the company decided to take legal action against PsyStar, claiming PsyStar violated Apple's copyright and license agreements (EULAs), and motivated others to do the same. While several legal experts agree that Apple's EULA will stand the test of court in The Netherlands, the situation in the US might be completely different. PsyStar seems prepared for the worst, as they have hired lawyers from Carr & Ferrell LLP, a firm who successfully fought Apple in court over IP issues before. I'm breaking out the popcorn, because this is hopefully going to be a big one.
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Member since:2005-07-08
I think I may have missed most of your point. Somehow you're bringing FOSS and your apparent distaste for it into a discussion about tying certain software to certain hardware - at least it seems like that's what you're trying to do. I simply cannot grock your argument.
Can you please explain your thoughts on how it harms Apple to have people use purchased Apple software on non-apple hardware?
To flip things around, do you believe that Apple is harmed when someone buys Apple hardware and installs Windows or Linux or what have you on it?
Member since:2005-07-03
Well, I'm bringing the FOSS to the table because most people that insist on doing this (that is, using Apple SW on non apple hw) have mentioned the FOSS somehow. It is my impression that is "these" people the ones who are more interested in this. My uncle is not going to go to Apple.com and buy OS X for his new Dell notebook, as much as he's not going to install Fedora. So there's a slight connection between these two groups. Windows users who want to move away from Windows are not the types of users who have a computer tied at work and/or use it to check email and talk to their relatives through skype. Those couldn't care less.
Regarding your question about "my point": The truth is I don't have a point. I just think that I prefer Apple to keep their ecosystem working as it is. Opening OS X would be a mess. The company will suffer from every corner. Angry users, things not working, sues, blamings, etcetera. We all know this is what's gonna happen. But then "those who wanted OSX" will be happy. But it's clearly a minor portion of the people. There may be many here on OSNews, there may be many "around", but in the end, the "world" doesn't care about issues like this.
I think Apple would suffer, that's my fear. And this is not about being "elitist" or thinking: "i've paid for Apple, you pay too if you want it". No, far from it. It's just an idea. If it works, don't fix it. Apple works (as a Company). Don't disturb it, because there are people out there, who are happy the way it is.
Apple is not harmed when you install Windows/Linux/Etc through BootCamp, etc. because to do that, you have to have OS X before. You use (or used) OS X and either you disliked (could happen) or you need other OS. But I don't think that buying any Apple computer and wiping OS X is something you'll see very often. Old boxes perhaps, to run some unix, but a brand new MacBook Pro? iMac? Wiped just to install Fedora? There may be somebody doing it, but it's -imo- defeating the true benefit of the Apple Hardware. And that is marriage between HW/SW.
"we" the Apple Users (not the fanboys with flags and t-shirts), are mostly happy with it. We have problems, we hate apple from time to time because of this or that, but we're incredibly happy with the way things work. I speak for the majority of the Mac OS X users I know around "me". And you can read the same stories all over the net. So In General the Mac crowds make fun of the "other" OSs and users who do not enjoy their computers.
But this is way off topic. I think that by now you may disagree or not with me, but you understand my point. Or that I hope. 
By the way, it doesn't look like Apple needs to sell OS X for all to start making money, does it?
Member since:2007-02-17
I'll take this one. It harms Apple because Apple is a hardware company, the software they do develop they sell dirt cheap compared to their competition in the same market to entice users to buy their hardware. Being able to run other OS is a selling point of their hardware, it does not harm Apple in any way in-fact it helps sell their system. Hacking OSX and then selling to run on commodity hardware harms Apple because they already sell their software far lower than their competition in certain areas and if everyone can run OSX, why would they buy Apple hardware, how will Apple recoup their investment?
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
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"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Member since:
2005-07-03
I want Apple to win. Here're my reasons:
I am an Apple user. I am happy with all the Macs I've had in the past. When I switched 5 years ago, I was very happy. I enjoyed computers again. After more than 13 years of Windows/DOS, OS/2 and Linux, I found a nice computer to get stuff done.
I don't care to "pay more" for the "same hardware" that you can get at www.buyclonesandmakethemyourself.com, as much as I don't care for Free Software. The world has way more problems than "free" software. The economy is based upon a business model that drives companies to earn money. I don't care about how much "free" my Operating System is, as much as I don't care for the TV Firmware.
This is not a 100% free world, it never will and you gotta live with it. I don't understand the Free/Open advocates. I can understand the values of Open Source, and free (as in beer) stuff, but I also understand the other side of the coin. OS X belongs to Apple Inc. You don't "buy" OS X, you buy a license to use it. They decide to put the terms how / where to use it. If you don't like it, don't buy it. What's so hard to understand?
If I just forget about Apple, OSX, computers, etc., I just go beyond this and try to find an analogy, and it seems so natural.
They programmed OS X, they do what they want if you want to use it.
It's just another point of view. People will disagree with this. Before clicking the "-" button, remember: this is just another point of view, as valid as the other one; the one that praises freedom to do whatever you want with the license you paid for. I just use the computer as a tool, as entertainment, etc. I can do whatever I want with my computer. Apple is not using my mouse to move my cursor.
I don't know. Maybe I'm too naive or this people are too closed minded (no pun intended).