Hell just froze, pigs are flying, the apocalypse is near (1 Viewer)

[Martin]

"At the Mobile World Congress, Steve Ballmer took aim at Apple's closed iPhone ecosystem with an ironic plea for openness: 'Openness is central because it's the foundation of choice.' Ballmer has apparently forgotten his company's own efforts to vertically integrate hardware and software (Zune, XBox), its history of vertically integrating software (tying SharePoint into Office, IE, SQL Server, Active Directory, etc.), as well as years of illegally tying Windows to Internet Explorer that only the US Justice Department could undo. Indeed, Microsoft's effect on the browser market has pushed Mozilla to get involved in a recent European Commission action against the software giant, with Mozilla's Mitchell Baker recently declaring that 'A number of illegal activities were also involved in creating IE's market dominance,' now requiring government intervention to open up the browser market to fair competition. Putting aside Microsoft's own tainted reputation in the field of openness, is Ballmer right? Should Apple open up its iPhone platform to outside competition, both in terms of hardware and software?"

http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/21/1318253&from=rss


I ran to check the calendar but it's not April 1. In the most ironic statement ever out of Redmond, apparently Ballmer thinks closing off your technology to other competitors is a BAD THING.

It's like torture. Awesome when we're doing it to you. Sucks when you're doing it to us.

 

Buy on AliExpress.com

[mikhail]

Companies are supposed to make profit, not sense.

 

[Lion]

word

 

[swag]

Apple's iTunes, iPods, and iPhones -- all products I avoid like the plague -- ironically embrace all of Microsoft's platform lock-in technology strategies that scuttled much of Apple's computer/OS business a decade ago.

I can't say that I blame Apple for lifting a page from Microsoft's manual on how to run your own evil empire. But that still doesn't make it right.

 

[Lion]

there are no such thing as ethics in billion dollar corporations

 

[Bjerknes]

There are far more damaging corporations to civilization out there than Apple. Halliburton lives off wars and the destruction of cities, Monsanto produces a dangerous version of transgenic maize and openly employs child labor, and PetroChina basically funds the genocide in Sudan. All the commotion about Apple is so... old.

 

[swag]

This hell after-party is the bomb, though.

 

[Martin]

There are far more damaging corporations to civilization out there than Apple. Halliburton lives off wars and the destruction of cities, Monsanto produces a dangerous version of transgenic maize and openly employs child labor, and PetroChina basically funds the genocide in Sudan. All the commotion about Apple is so... old.

Here's a clue. I don't grow crops. I don't produce cars. I don't do any of the stuff that would put me in touch with these other companies. Instead, I have to deal with the realities of Microsoft and Apple (I suppose I should be happy there are just two of them) on a daily basis. So it does very much affect me. Now to say that it's "not as bad" and that "others are worse" is like saying well I guess my aids isn't so bad, it could have been cancer.

It's bad enough.

 

[Martin]

And here's another thought. Microsoft achieved complete domination with the tactics they used. It worked. They still have ~90% of the desktop market. And Apple is succeeding with their tactics too. Their market share is growing. So, in purely free market terms, why would these companies do anything more egregious than what they are doing? They're already meeting their goals. And why on earth would you think that if they had to go Monsanto on the market to gain control they wouldn't? Corporations don't have a conscience, after all.

 

[swag]

Fuck the corporations, it's time for anarchy

Give them a couple months, and corporations will turn anarchy into a new marketing angle. :sick: