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

blogs.computerworld.com

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

#231

Post by jack-r-abbit »

TimGebhardt wrote: post #208
jack-r-abbit wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. So... I don't ban anyone from my swimming pool... everyone is welcome. But if you're not family, you have to wear this 100lb ankle weight. Dive right in everybody! lol

I think there is a big difference between banning it outright (like Apple) and hampering it. From the end-users point of view both suck, but at least if I use Firefox to sync my bookmarks and passwords I'm able to on a Windows tablet. Nothing I can do on an iPad.

First, let's assume the majority of users are not going to know why the an app is not allowed and/or why it is sluggish/limited/hampered/etc. From the average user point of view... the biggest difference to me is that when it is banned, the banner (Apple) is the bad guy for not letting it in. When it is severely hampered the bad guy appears to be the creator (Firefox) for making a crap app when in reality the hamper-er (Microsoft) is the bad guy for crippling the app's ability to perform as well as it can.

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

#232

Post by Nick_C »

muuh-gnu wrote: post #201
rbanffy wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason most people use Windows is that Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba make it incredibly hard to buy a computer without it. Go to HP's site now and see if you can get a notebook with Linux preinstalled. Most people would be perfectly happy with a Linux machine (I can tell you my mother is) and had hardware manufacturers given even some slight support (instead of building dozens of models seemingly design…

> never managed to interest Microsoft's 5 most important clients (the aforementioned PC makers) on the full-featured, rock-solid, fast and stable desktop Because it is neither rock-solid nor stable. It changes too much, too often, in an irregluar, unpredictable pattern, so major software makers refuse to target it. Without software, you dont get users, and without users, hardware makers wont bother to preinstall, etc…

> Because it is neither rock-solid nor stable. It changes too much, too often, in an irregluar, unpredictable pattern

Perhaps you are watching Ubuntu, which does do this. Others are rock-solid and super stable. Slackware comes to mind, Debian is another. Lenny only went out of life a couple of months ago.

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

#234

Post by GFischer »

jt2190 wrote: post #181
cooldeal wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite true, Netscape's rewrite was a pretty bad mistake and when it was actually released it was still bad. Must read articles by Joel about it. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000027.html

Brendan Eich has a different take than Joel: http://techluminaries.com/2008/12/15/episode-1-brendan-eich/

Is there a transcription available? I can't listen to podcasts at work (and don't listen to them in my free time as a personal preference).
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