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I saw the saddest thing, last night
13 years ago
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http://www.patreon.com/cobalt
During a round of Christmas shopping, and against my better judgement, I ended up at the local mall.
Within, I discovered that the record store I had intended to visit had not only closed, but had been replaced - by a Microsoft store.
I hadn't intended to set foot inside it, but my traveling companion, an avowed tech geek, made a beeline towards it's Metro-bedecked interior. He was curious, I ended up being pulled along in his wake.
As video screens on all sides bombarded us with propaganda about Windows 8, I found an analogy bubbling to the surface of my brain. I stood there, surrounded on all sides by a completely Microsoft environment, and it all clicked. I finally *got* Microsoft. Completely, and utterly.
You know how, whenever there's a hot children's film in the theaters, be it from Disney, PIXAR, or what-have-you... how a bunch of cut-rate Korean animators will quickly throw-together, and rush out a trash-budget copy of it? You'll be in a store and there it will be, looking just different enough to avoid a lawsuit, but close enough to fool the unwary.
Kung Fu Panda? NO! Chop Kick Panda!
CARS? NO! Little Cars!
A Bug's Life? NO! A Bug Story!
...and so forth.
Microsoft is the technology equivalent of those cut-budget animation studios. Whatever the cutting-edge tech item of the moment is, they always, and without fail, throw together their own cut-budget copy, which is just different enough to avoid a lawsuit, and rush it out onto the market.
When it was Mac OS, out came Windows
When it was Netscape Navigator - along came Internet Explorer
When the iPod happened, they barfed up a Zune
Google? NO! BING!
...and so forth.
And as the current hot items are apple iDevices, of course they've got to have one of those too.
So, we get Microsoft Surface, which isn't quite an iPad, as it has a flimsy, easily destroyed "keyboard" flap attached to it.
And Windows 8, which isn't quite iOS, as getting around the lawsuit this time meant removing any vestige of usability.
...And we also get the Microsoft store, which is where this tale actually began.
So what was it that cemented these random thoughts into a cohesive understanding?
Well, you see, we also have an Apple Store, and we have had it for quite awhile now. And as I have been inside it on numerous occasions to buy things (cases and protective film for my iPod Touch) I had become well-versed in the layout and atmosphere contained within. And the somewhat different manner with which it operates from most every other store (every salesperson is a cash register, courtesy of a gadget on a lanyard around their necks.)
And Microsoft have done it, once again. What we get is just different enough to avoid the lawsuit - which in this case meant doing away with muted, subtle simplicity, and flooding the walls with the visual assault of all those aforementioned video propaganda displays.
But, They have the same product tables.
The same arrangement of products on those tables.
The same floor layout and store floorplan.
The salespeople are dressed up in apple store uniforms, right down to the gadget on a lanyard around the neck.
They basically took an apple store. Crossed out APPLE and wrote MICROSOFT over it in Biro.
And sadly, it really is the perfect store for them. An ideal representation.
A solid testament to their corporate vision.
MICROSOFT: Just different enough to avoid the lawsuit.
I wonder what they'll copy next.
Within, I discovered that the record store I had intended to visit had not only closed, but had been replaced - by a Microsoft store.
I hadn't intended to set foot inside it, but my traveling companion, an avowed tech geek, made a beeline towards it's Metro-bedecked interior. He was curious, I ended up being pulled along in his wake.
As video screens on all sides bombarded us with propaganda about Windows 8, I found an analogy bubbling to the surface of my brain. I stood there, surrounded on all sides by a completely Microsoft environment, and it all clicked. I finally *got* Microsoft. Completely, and utterly.
You know how, whenever there's a hot children's film in the theaters, be it from Disney, PIXAR, or what-have-you... how a bunch of cut-rate Korean animators will quickly throw-together, and rush out a trash-budget copy of it? You'll be in a store and there it will be, looking just different enough to avoid a lawsuit, but close enough to fool the unwary.
Kung Fu Panda? NO! Chop Kick Panda!
CARS? NO! Little Cars!
A Bug's Life? NO! A Bug Story!
...and so forth.
Microsoft is the technology equivalent of those cut-budget animation studios. Whatever the cutting-edge tech item of the moment is, they always, and without fail, throw together their own cut-budget copy, which is just different enough to avoid a lawsuit, and rush it out onto the market.
When it was Mac OS, out came Windows
When it was Netscape Navigator - along came Internet Explorer
When the iPod happened, they barfed up a Zune
Google? NO! BING!
...and so forth.
And as the current hot items are apple iDevices, of course they've got to have one of those too.
So, we get Microsoft Surface, which isn't quite an iPad, as it has a flimsy, easily destroyed "keyboard" flap attached to it.
And Windows 8, which isn't quite iOS, as getting around the lawsuit this time meant removing any vestige of usability.
...And we also get the Microsoft store, which is where this tale actually began.
So what was it that cemented these random thoughts into a cohesive understanding?
Well, you see, we also have an Apple Store, and we have had it for quite awhile now. And as I have been inside it on numerous occasions to buy things (cases and protective film for my iPod Touch) I had become well-versed in the layout and atmosphere contained within. And the somewhat different manner with which it operates from most every other store (every salesperson is a cash register, courtesy of a gadget on a lanyard around their necks.)
And Microsoft have done it, once again. What we get is just different enough to avoid the lawsuit - which in this case meant doing away with muted, subtle simplicity, and flooding the walls with the visual assault of all those aforementioned video propaganda displays.
But, They have the same product tables.
The same arrangement of products on those tables.
The same floor layout and store floorplan.
The salespeople are dressed up in apple store uniforms, right down to the gadget on a lanyard around the neck.
They basically took an apple store. Crossed out APPLE and wrote MICROSOFT over it in Biro.
And sadly, it really is the perfect store for them. An ideal representation.
A solid testament to their corporate vision.
MICROSOFT: Just different enough to avoid the lawsuit.
I wonder what they'll copy next.
Note for the acronym-impaired:
R&D - Research and Development: Where people are supposed to be coming up with new ideas and products.
M&A - Mergers and Acquisitions: Where the lawyrs and accountants work to buy up other companies and otherwise steal ideas they didn't come up with.
Huh. I thought I was over the whole "PC vs. Mac" thing, but I guess I'm not. *waves a flag with an Apple logo*
And a pc is for well gaming lol
I have also, many times in the past, torn Apple a new one:
iOS4 - It Stinks!:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1496267/
Apple Fails Again:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1498785/
Apple Trifecta:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1506037/
Apple's Fail-O-Thon 2010 Continues:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1679300/
iOS5 - Glad it was free, wish I could uninstall most of it:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2811305/
iOS6 - Yawn Different:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3546250/
And those are just the things posted to FA.
I have also, for example, lambasted them about removing features from quicktime, so that they could then charge their customers extra, just to get them back.
And they have done a whole raft of new bits of idiocy that I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of, such as ruining iTunes by removing key features like Coverflow, or doing away with their entire video editing line of products.
So, I'm afraid that pretty much the bulk of your response is either irrelevant, or simply wrong. I am not saying bad things about Microsoft because I'm taking sides in some Mac -vs- PC fanboy war. In fact, what I wrote had little to do with Apple at all. They are just one of the various tech companies whose products have been fed into Microsoft's Xerox machines. Apple happened to be the recipients of the latest and most blatant copy-job. That's all.
Eventually, there will be another technology innovation, and we will once again see Microsoft swing into gear to rush out their copy of it, be it from Apple, Google, Mozilla, or whoever. The Microsoft copy will be big, it will be dumb, it will be loud, and it will be overhyped to the point of nausea.
Their company policy appears to be to blindly copy whatever's hot right now, get it on the market no matter how full of bugs it is, and fix it in the next version after they've stolen as much credit as they can, just by sheer dint of having it out. They are, to technology, the equivalent of people who remove the signatures from other people's drawings, so that they can claim I DREW THIS.
I'm not going to give them a pass for that.
It's okay to take inspiration from another's works. It's not okay to just trace over it and call it your own.
I tried an iPad but was fighting it all the time because I wanted to do things my way.
My main dislike of Apple is that they are now a Fashion item mixed with a tech product and hence have the shortest lifespan in the world.
My main dislike of Microsoft is the tend to be very hit and miss usually every second OS is terrible.
microsoft has just lost sight of their founding user base with this latest os. tablets are the current "big thing" so they "adapted" accordingly. the fools.
typed on my ipad
I worked at Burger King for a few years. It was pretty much the same there, just with more grease.
Teenage wage slaves tend to be the same all over, no matter how trendy the store is that they're slacking off in.
Microsoft's business was always software development, which is why their hardware has been, how to put this nicely, lackluster? As a Windows user and fan of the Xbox, I shy away from most hardware the put out and bide my time when a new OS hits the market. I stuck with 7 even now.
What I find especially funny is how Microsoft hasn't noticed that most of the stuff they imitate is only a fad. If it wasn't the companies might take it seriously enough to produce quality products that don't break in a month.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_.....ft_Corporation
SPOILERS: Apple lost the suit, and their appeal was denied.
The court also pointed out that many of Apple's claims fail on an originality basis.
Rich. I won't deny Micorsoft is copying, but not to the extent of Leigh Scott or the Korean animators you listed. They're copying things you can't exactly copyright. However, I will acknowledge my own lack of familiarity with Windows 8, so if there are similarities there, I don't know about them. All I've seen are the touchscreen comparisons.
Would you be able to list some other things that Microsoft stole from Apple? I'm curious now and I'm up for hunting these down. By the way, how IS Windows 8 formatted? I seriously have NO idea!