Hi all. Instead of the usual welcome message I've taken the time to roll a lot of peoples email from the last month into one response.
I don't want to see Microsoft flattened like a steamroller out of control, just brought heavily into line. There's no point giving a predator like M$ a bloody nose, it just leaves the door open to rub your face in it later. I can't be bothered reading headlines like 'if Microsoft delays the shipping of Win98 the computing world will end' that's crap. How to go about this requires more thought than a quick crossword in your daily newspaper. Microsoft have progressed the software industry to a remarkable degree but at the expense of others. A world without Microsoft might not be as blissful as you'd like to think. Remember the million-dollar handshake with Apple? And Office 98 is an improvement on it's beleaguered past if you have the hard disk space. Breaking M$ up might just create more little demons to plague the world's desktops.
As a Mac user my first thoughts are always let the buggers have what they deserve, but just what does Microsoft deserve? Apple in many ways is employing tighter policies than M$ on both its work force, end users and developer customers. Most Mac users were very quick to scream foul at the similarities between Windows OS and the Mac OS, but even quicker to forget that Apple 'saw' the idea of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) at the Xerox PARC facility in the early 80's. Apple just made it more usable and marketable.
I once heard a quote that went something like:
'Apple broke in to the neighbours house to steel the TV, unfortunately someone else was in the house trying to do the same thing.'
Very apt!
Apple was and still is a very innovative company, something most competitors designers can only dream of. You only have to look at the eMate, 21st anniversary and iMac to see this. For the right or wrong reasons Apple's name is one of the most infamous in the business next to the likes of Microsoft and IBM's.
1984 Apple OnLine Magazine is a VERY strong supporter of Apple Machines and that will never waver, but as always there are two sides to every story. Both M$ and Apple have capitalised on the others short falls. We must also not forget M$ does not make computers nor hardware, as Apple and some users have struggled to see, give people affordable, reliable and commercially viable hardware and the software will follow. That's what IBM did.
I was accused quite recently of 'overdoing' the problems M$ is having lately. The person who sent the email although a Wintel user was impressed with our online efforts in such a short time but disliked the tone towards Microsoft.
As I have spontaneously spouted before, 1984 is not just I. There are many talented writers and guest articles that mirror their respective opinions. We in some respect are quite an opinionated publication. 1984 tries to cover news whether it is good or bad, reviews and everyday users input, has been the making of our success thus far. This is probably the first time Microsoft just can't get off the pages of IT and general computing magazines for all the wrong reasons. Apple users have had to suffer this for years.
Before only the Mac press were throwing stones at Microsoft's big greenhouse now everyone from Time to CNN want a piece of the action.
