🚀 go-pugleaf

From article <0d3O1ZG00j5u4547EG@andrew.cmu.edu>, by jb3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon Allen Boone):
> I'd like to address some of the things which Thomas Okken says.
> [...]
>> Sure you're not completely callous. You decide to vilify and boycott Apple,
>> one of the very few companies that has brought some real innovation to the
>> industry, because:
>>  - Apple is a big, visible company, and you get a nice "mouse that roared"
>>    effect this way
> 
>      Apple has a large market share and is using techniques we don't
> approve of in order to secure a *larger* market share.  It's *not*
> acceptable to simply walk away and say "gosh, we tried..."  It's
> *important* that we see this through to the end - and to *not* let a
> decision in favor of Apple stop our movement.

Apple is trying to secure - and if possible increase - its market share, true.
Since Apple is a for-profit organization, unlike the FSF, it needs a market
share to guarantee its continuity. It is using legal means to protect its share
of the market it created - namely, low-end PCs with a GUI. What they are
fighting in the courts are unfair tactics by competitors: stealing code and
making too-similar copies of the Mac UI.
If any of this has affected alternative, *original* GUIs like Motif and
other X-based GUIs, I have not heard about it. The *need* to stop Apple is
still not obvious to me.

>>  - the Mac is no hacker's machine, so you won't antagonize too many hackers
>>    with this boycott, and you need those hackers to contribute their efforts
>>    to the FSF
> 
>      This is an unsubstantiated speculation - it's a nice rhetorical
> point, but there's no meat there.  You've no way to _prove_ and I've
> no way to _disprove_ that boycotting a company which produces a
> "hacker's machine" would result in fewer efforts from users/owners of
> those machines - this may become especially true as OSF/1 products
> become available from the various vendors, and (hopefully) shortly
> therafter the GNU-OS (herd) comes out.  Tools which will compile under
> herd should port *nicely* to any MACH-based system - so a boycott of
> DEC (say) theoretically would not affect those of us who run OSF/1
> from DEC too much.

An unsubstantiated speculation, indeed. Just like the speculation that if
Apple wins the Microsoft/HP suit, it will proceed to sue everybody else into
the ground.
You also point out that users of, say, DEC machines would be less affected
by a boycott. What is your point? I thought boycotts were statements of
principle, so why let that get into your considerations? Also, I doubt very
much that the Apple boycott has affected Apple very much. But no one seems
to think that's a reason to stop it. (By the way, I agree with that.)

> [...]
>
>> I would say Apple hurt no one in making the Mac GUI. Quite the contrary,
>> they did very many people a big favour by making a GUI-based machine
>> affordable for the first time. I say they deserve a medal.
> 
>   Apple provided quite a few people (such as my girlfriend) with an
> easy to use interface to computers - they also put enough weight
> behind it to make it become *imperative* that other vendors supply it
> as well.  For that they deserve thanks and congratulations.
> 
>    They then turn around and try to *prevent* other vendors from
> providing the very thing which they made so *necessary* - the obvious
> logical result being that only Apple's will have GUI's - and everyone
> else will suffer.  For that they deserve to hang.

The way I see it, they only want everyone else who designs a GUI to go to
just as much trouble as they did, and if others use their code (which is
one of the things they accuse Microsoft of) or make a near-identical copy
of their design, they fight that. I agree with you that that's a shame,
because the user's community would surely benefit if Apple gave away, or~ at
least licensed, their code and design. However, Apple is here to make a profit
for its shareholders, and giving away or selling their competitive edge
does not fit in with that.
You also reiterate the unsubstantiated claim that Apple is out to kill all
competing GUIs. But still I see Amigas, Ataris, PC running MS Windows, not
to mention all those Unix boxes with GUIs. Apple *has* sent its lawyers at
Commodore and Atari, because their GUIs were obvious copies of the Mac, and
after the designs were modified, it has left them alone.

>                     Jon "Iain" Boone
>                   jb3o+@andrew.cmu.edu

 - Thomas (thomas@duteca.et.tudelft.nl)