🚀 go-pugleaf

sigma@jec302.its.rpi.edu (Kevin J Martin) writes:

>johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu (Bill Johnston) writes:
>>In article <13151@helios.TAMU.EDU>, mcl9337@aim1.tamu.edu 
>>(MARK CHRISTOPHER LOWE) writes...
>>>I just read that thing about the case between Apple and Microsoft.
>>>I hope the hell Apple doesn't win this.  Who uses Macs anyway??  {:-<
>>>People that are afraid of computers!!
>>
>>Who uses Windows?  People who are afraid of Macintoshes? 

>[rabid Microsoft flamage deleted]

>I could see your flame war and raise you several nasty insults, but none of
>that alt.religion.computers stuff is relevant to the issue at hand - namely
>that most big software companies have more lawyers than programmers!  In
>this case, Apple is a particular villain.  Shortcomings in MSDOS are not
>relevant.  Shortcomings in Apple service or pricing are not relevant.  What

<severl lines of attorney flaming omitted>

Yeah, the inhernat shortcomings of DOS and Apple's outrageous MAC
pricing ARE relavent.  DOS is the better OS, but has a piss-poor
interface.  Apple/MAC has a great interface, a relatively slow porcessor
that tends to foster fat slow running programs and a pricing policy
that only a Pentagon purchasing agent could love.

>about - issues which were only issues because some lawyer saw a chance to
>make a buck!

And what is so wrong with lawyers making a buck.  When I get through law
school (after I get done with a degree in computer science) i hope that
I can make a buck.  Or maybe I should set up shop, mail my advice
all over the map, and hope to make a living off donations that come in?

>And whether or not the case ever gets decided, and no matter what the
>outcome eventually is, in the meantime legal expenses drive up the costs at
>these major software companies (and prices go up, of course, or service and
>quality goes down), and small developers may be abandoning projects for
>fear of getting slammed in the courts.

What started all of this was Lotus' "Look and Feel" suit against FoxBase.
Lotus just could never figure out how to not copy protect their stuff, and
rather than try and make a better product, spent most of their time trying
to sell the world on the blessings of copy protection.  (At least in the
DOS world -- I'm told that the UNIX version of Lotus 1-2-3 makes the DOS
version and Quattro-Pro look sick.)
-- 
Loel H. Larzelere -- Send mail to:  loel@blugoose

"Anything worth doing is worth doing for money"