Is Microsoft worse than Apple?

I just bought an ipod touch. I expected to have to install itunes and I knew that annoyingly I would have to install quicktime. I went through all of that a couple of years ago with a nano.

This time around, in addition, Apple decided that I would definitely be using the itunes store in the future. I had no intention (and that intention is even stronger now) of purchasing from the itunes store. However, before I could use the device to play music I had to set up an account at the itunes store. Then I had to provide the details of a debit/credit card for future purchases from the itunes store.

I was a bit shocked and annoyed to have to go through all of this for a service I wasn't going to use and before I could use a device I had already paid for. It's not a major big deal, there are far worse things that can happen to me than that.

However, these events made me wonder about Microsoft and Apple. My feeling is that Microsoft get a tough time for being a big greedy, privacy invading corporation. On the other hand Apple seem to have a cool trendy image.

I just wondered how Apple get away with being a big greedy, privacy invading corporation and Microsoft don't.

 

Why do you think that an OS as well as hardware which though being inherently superior Unix based as well as having one of the best DTP as well as video/animation software failed to penetrate the market like MS. Not only that, Apple had far better interface and was way more stable as compared to MS's initial offerings barring NT and yet the percentage of Mac machines till today remains low. The reason was hardware. Their greed made them keep it to themselves. When I started a digital studio here in India in the middle 90s I priced a Power PC and got a shock of my life, for price of one, I could build myself two super powerful dual XEON machines and have spare change left. The price for a replacement CDROM drive was at a 200% premium over the Windows one, sure it was SCSI but so was the Windows one and I had a myriad of choice regarding that. Then came the software that was priced out of reach and with far less choice. Now things have changed, after harping about the superiority of their RISC CPU, Apple has finally changed and now uses the same humble Intel CPU that us poor Windows guys had used from the beginning. Of course now they harp on their software front but guess what, however good it may be, there are limited choices when compared to Windows or Linux platform. All due to the greed of Apple and that led to their exclusivity. Till today Mac owners tend to look down on us unfortunate Windows owners cause we paid less and they have a Mac............hilarious.........man's vanity has no end.

 

The hardware might be the main problem, nowadays it isn´t as important which os you use.

 

i also wonder how apple get away with doing some of the same things microsoft do.
apple says microsoft cant have internet explorer and windows media player preinstalled on windows because it doesnt give the user choice.
yet apple can preinstall safari and itunes on OSX?

if you downloaded messenger for mac and you lanched the updator and it also downloaded media player people would be in a uproar.
but its ok for someone to download quicktime lanch the updator and it also installs safari and itunes...

because apple has a "cool" image they are allowed to get away with alot of things.

 

Wow, thanks for that Lodore. I couldn't work out how Safari had got installed. I assumed it had happened during the itunes install but couldn't remember saying OK to it. The icon just seemed to be there a couple of days later.

 

Is OSX and the UNIX codebase really that much superior than the NT codebase? If so, please tell me how?

I hear this one a lot too. Is this true as well? What the program called? Does windows really not have a software port?

 

You miss the point entirely, though.
As an Apple user, you devote your life, your beliefs, and all your energy into knowing you are superior and the best. Why would you object to providing your financial information to a movement that is really dedicated to saving the human race from mediocrity ? You just need more faith. Believe....BELIEVE !!!

 

LMAO
i have never followed the crowd. if someone does like me for who i am its their problem.

 

If Apple were #1 on the food chain, you can bet that the other 'small potatoes' would do everything in thier power to take as much away as they could, while themselves staying below the radar.

The war of which OS is best is ridiculous. Whoever has the largest share of users will be targeted the most because the payoff will be the largest. At that point, that OS become the one with the most holes and bugs, as well as the one that is scrutinized the most for it's business practices.

MS is lucky they were the first to get to market is all. Had Apple not been so stingy with it's hardware early on, they would be the top dog right now, and undoubtedly would have lawsuits against them being a 'monopoly' of some form.

Just my opionon anyway.

Sul.

 

SpikeyB, i think so too (Apple being worse than MS).
While it definitely seems technically better, one has to look at everything.

Microsoft with all it's issues, is a better solution imo.
Cdrom fails, buy a cheap one. HD, same, and so on. Want a different OS, the only issue could be drivers, and that, besides being a different problem, is being solved.
With Apple ..

There are niche markets where this evidently works, but speaking for myself i'm not there. No iphone, no ipod, no nothing.

Of course we could see it in a different light.
Imagine Macs being dominant. A lot of this abuse would go away i believe, due to regulation.

 

Exactly, Apple has done some of the same stupid things that Microsoft gets hounded for. If Apple was just as big of a blip of the radar screen as Microsoft they too would catch the same flack IMHO. If you really want to get down to it, Apple is worse than Microsoft when it comes to choice. I can run whatever in the heck I want on a PC, and I can use whatever hardware from whomever I want too, not happening with Apple though.

OT, but the OS wars are really a bit silly, and I went through my fanboy days. Linux, Mac, Windows, they all do the same thing. They each have advantages/disadvantages. Some look better, some don't crash as often (they all crash, hell, all of them are nothing more than millions/billions of lines of code made by imperfect humans), some are SLIGHTLY more secure by default (yes Linux'ers, I'm talking to you, you're not totally safe, it's simply a matter of the bad guys not paying much attention to such a low user base...when that changes, that warm fuzzy feeling will go away pretty quick).

Now, back to the topic

 

The GUI aspect, the GDI aspect and the overall speed as well as security was far better than NT. I used NT till 2K SP2 came out and have had the opportunity to use Mac OS as well so I speak from my experience.

All major DTP houses still continue to use Adobe and Quark even though Adobe has Windows port. Somehow all of them feel that it works out far better under Mac.

 

Re speed I cant comment as I havent had extensive use of OSX however re security, Vista has made some major headway and unless you are an OS software engineer, I'm not sure you can make a statement either way on this.

 

You should pay attention to what you see on the screen when you install something. You do not have to set up an account to use iTunes with an iPod. You can even disable the iTunes store within the preferences.

 

Hi Espresso

What you state is very curious. Just to check, I just installed itunes on an XP machine with no requirement to create an account at the itunes store. Exactly as I would have expected prior to my latest experiences.

This is very different to what happened on a vista machine (don't know if vista makes a difference). Upon connection of the touch (for the first time) I was automatically directed to the itunes store (within the itunes window) where I was required to create an account. I remember thinking, "this can't be right" and closed itunes. The touch would not connect and showed an arrow icon with a cd icon (i.e. not setup correctly yet, I believe). I reconnected the touch and again was automatically directed to create an account.

Perhaps I did make a mistake somewhere along the way but I really don't know where.

I wonder if anyone else has experienced the same as me.