Apple repeats history again.

[Deja Q]

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5542050.html



Apple has resisted licensing its digital-music copy-protection technology as long as its iPod and iTunes Music Store are far more popular than any of their respective rivals. That has largely kept iPod users from shopping at any non-Apple digital music store.

In a different bid for universality, Microsoft does license its rights-management tools to anyone who asks in hopes that its Windows Media audio and video formats will become more widely used.

Both companies have always embraced propritary standards. With one difference: Microsoft licenses out and looks big - even pretends to be as needed. Apple? They just sit in a corner like a starving lion guarding its freshly captured rabbit.

Apple was this way with not licensing MacOS, which was why Macs never caught on.

Sigh. History repeats itself.

Flame me all you want. Also note that the iPod itself is the ultimate nemesis for any true environmentalist... http://www.computertakeback.com/bad_apple/bad_apple_biz.cfm

[Solon]

1. Yep, I agree...

That's why I think formats like Ogg Vorbis will countinually gain ground against Microsoft and Apple. Simple reason, better format, no licensing fees.

[Paleocon]

2. Remeber when Apple did try to license the Mac OS?

What a fiasco that turned out to be.

As much as I love Apple, they seem doomed to be a niche player...

Which may not be all bad.

[EC]

3. Do you blame them?

Since Gates stole windows from Jobs when they were good buds...I can't blame them now...

[no name no slogan]

10. That's a myth-- Gates didn't steal Windows from Jobs

Both Gates and Jobs stole it from Xerox PARC, whose Alto minicomputer was the first "personal" computer to use a windowing system. It was first used by research scientists at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in 1972.

The Xerox Star was the commercial descendent of the Alto. It first appeared on the marketplace in 1981. It featured a two-button mouse and a windowed interface. It also included WYSIWYG word processing software, email and many other features of a modern desktop. It was first released to the rest of the world in 1981-- three years BEFORE the first Mac came into being.

Here's a photo of a Star 8010:


More on the Alto and Star here.

:)

[Lone Pawn]

11. Well, actually,

Gates stole it from Jobs who stole it from Xerox. So there we go.

[Lone Pawn]

4. Except right now Apple can afford to do that.

They have nearly 90% of the music-player market. Personally, I'd say the don't-let-anyone-get-a-toehold strategy is the one to go with here. It backfired like hell when they tried to play like a big dog and had a 10% market share. In the digital-music scene, their situation is much more like Microsoft's OS situation was seven years ago: they're the only real players, and all partnerships will be done on their terms (note the HP iPod). As long as the iPod is the trendy little white slice of cool, they ought consolidate as much of the market as they can. They have a good idea with their iTunes—iPod nexus; you need one to use the other. And once people get hooked on it, they won't be buying a Creative player any time soon.

[da_chimperor]

6. I bought an HD based creative player way back before the iPod

It was a real piece. A pain in the ass to organize my songs, low battery life, and it was USB. Ick.

[Lone Pawn]

7. Yeah, I had a Rio 500 MP3 player

back when it was first launched and flash MP3 players were kickin'. It was f'ing murder to get the songs on it right, the battery was a pain, it got all scratched up just being in my pocket, and to make matters worse, two months after I got it my dog chewed through the USB cable. I tried to buy a new one, but Rio said "oh, no. We just discontinued the 500, and the 600 port is shaped different. Why don't you buy a 600? It has lots of good features!" I decided then I'd never touch another Rio product again. Damn, Rio sucks.

[da_chimperor]

5. I thought burning fossil fuels is the REAL ultimate Nemesis

Guess I didn't get the memo. :shrug: Sure, I'm upset with their lack of environmental responsibility, but I view global warming as much more serious of an issue, as I think many others do.

[no name no slogan]

8. Uh, Apple is a company whose job is to make MONEY off stuff

Apple will never be the Linux community, and comparing the two is like comparing apples to donkeys.

Mac doesn't need to license OS X. Darwin, the OS X core, is already under an open source license, and is freely available for any/all who want it. In fact, with a little tweaking, it is possible to run Darwin on x86 processors. And don't forget, OS X and Darwin are both based on FreeBSD, which is an open-source operating system.

Apple is under no obligation, under the FreeBSD license, to release ANYTHING to the community. Let's not forget that not all companies selling products on the Linux platform distribute their source code, either. IIRC KDE is still not licensed on an "open" model.

Remember, Apple isn't obligated to license anything. Apple is a business who feels its "unique" OS, GUI and hardware differentiate it from the other machines on the marketplace.

Of course, if they want to repeat history by keeping everything closed (and destroying any hope for a secondary market), that's their business :evilgrin:

[Elidor]

9. It's funny because Jobs is both a predator & a genius

But he can't do both at the same time. And he's fighting not only himself, but almost 2 decades of ingrained, myopic business practices. He may surprise us yet, but I agree that his approach so far has been inconsistent.

I do have great hope for the Mini. But I know that things will never change very much with Apple.