It's OK for Apple to block Firefox, but wrong when Microsoft does it

Post by drhowarddrfine » Sat, May 12, 2012, 2:35 AM UTC

georgemcbay wrote: post #88

cletus wrote: post #25

I wonder how many people throwing opinions around this were "of age" in the early-to-mid 90s and thus remember what an unstoppable behemoth Microsoft was. This was a time when they had 95%+ of the desktop OS share and you basically couldn't run a home computer with Windows. This was the early days of Linux (IIRC in ~1994 I downloaded SLS running Linux 0.99.x onto ~30 floppy drives over a 2400 baud modem!). Macs were…

I was around during the time period you're talking about and in my personal experience, Microsoft had plenty of help in killing Netscape from Netscape itself. I switched to MSIE3 not because of bundling or FUD but because it was a much better browser. Microsoft has been a bad actor at times when it comes to business practices, but I think a lot of people overestimate how much that helped them and underestimate how mu…

Post by recoiledsnake » Sat, May 12, 2012, 2:50 AM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #164

recoiledsnake wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There is a huge difference between iOS and other platforms. >Apple, in legal terms, makes Firefox on iOS impossible. This was not the case with Windows; Microsoft was using covert means to undermine user choice. Microsoft was using.. are you referring to the end 1990s or now? Does the 'huge difference' between them go away if Microsoft puts in a legal clause similar to the one in the iOS agreement? >To make a blanke…

So, because less people complain Apple does something similar (which is not really the same anyway) Microsoft gets a get-out-of-jail-free card? Because someone else does it, suddenly, doing it becomes right?

Post by contextfree » Sat, May 12, 2012, 3:14 AM UTC

recoiledsnake wrote: post #169

rbanffy wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows on ARM is where the action will be. It's about countless millions of corporate machines built around cheap and energy efficient hardware running corporate applications through a browser. Microsoft wants to make sure it's their browser.

>Windows on ARM is where the action will be. I thought you were the first to predict doom and gloom for Windows 8 in general every time :)

Post by plmokjnihbugv » Sat, May 12, 2012, 3:18 AM UTC

kalleboo wrote: post #75

ozten wrote: post #59

(Disclaimers: I work for Mozilla) There is a huge difference between iOS and other platforms. Apple, in legal terms, makes Firefox on iOS impossible. This was not the case with Windows; Microsoft was using covert means to undermine user choice. To make a blanket statement that Mozilla thinks Apple's banning Firefox from iPad and the iPhone is 'not a problem' is wrong and disingenuous. We have active projects around w…

> To apple's credit, they've provided a web standards based browser to a mobile landscape that didn't have one (at the time) and which spawned many other web standards based browsers like Chrome. As I recall it, Nokia started using WebKit on Symbian before the iPhone came out.

Post by Drbble » Sat, May 12, 2012, 4:25 AM UTC

narrator wrote: post #116

jcurbo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly disagree - especially in the browser area, it took many years to break Internet Explorer's total dominance, and the browser is what mattered most to consumers as the Internet became used by more and more everyday people. IE 4/5/6 was a golden era for Microsoft and many corporations are still stuck on IE6 as a base. Fortunately the consumer market is no longer dominated by IE; now that we have at least 4 majo…

I'm just glad they pulled some features out of IE6 because of the anti-trust investigation. Anyone remember Smart Tags? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_tag_(Microsoft) MS was basically going to put ads in every page on the Internet via the browser.