Is Imitation The Sincerest Form of Flattery?
,----[ Quote ]
| As many as 8 of the top 10 benefits of Microsoft Office 2007
| provide capabilities that have already been addressed by Corel
| WordPerfect Office X3. Some "new" features of Microsoft Office
| 2007 have even been part of Corel WordPerfect Office for
| close to a decade!
`----
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?c=Content_C1&cid=1166553933785&lc=en&pagename=CorelCom%2FLayout&trkid=wpe0107ft
http://tinyurl.com/2key74
Related:
The Redmond Copying Machine?
,----[ Quote ]
| My recent video, which tweaked Microsoft for crowing about its
| "innovation" in Windows Vista (without acknowledging its huge debt
| to Mac OS X), triggered plenty of reaction. It probably comes as no
| surprise that your comments quickly devolved into "which is better"
| bickering, which will proably never end.
|
| [...]
|
| Then this e-mail message, which arrived today from a guy who says
| he worked as a Microsoft temp employee from 2003 to 2004. I've
| agreed not to publish his name.
|
| [...]
|
| "Around the corner was another grid, showing the RealPlayer
| application. This grid was the same: grid A1 was the front userv
| iew of the application, mirroring what was on the iTunes wall/grid.
|
| "Around the next corner was another grid, this one showing Windows
| Media Player version 9 !! This one was missing a few tiles in the
| grid, but you could actually see the progress as each feature [of
| iTunes and RealPlayer] was copied, square for square.
|
| "Amazing. New software is put out, a manager sees it and decides that the
| creative part of their day is making color screen captures of the
| software and presenting it to the copying--er, engineering team."
`----
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/the-redmond-copying-machine/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDNuq94Zg_8
NT influenced by Unix
,----[ Quote ]
| (Gates:) "And through Windows NT, you can see it throughout the design.
| In a weak sense, it is a form of Unix. There are so many of the
| design decisions that have been influenced by that environment. And
| that's no accident."
|
| In light of the recent saber rattling about Linux and patents, the "There
| are so many of the design decisions that have been influenced by that
| environment" sentence is particularly interesting if these patent
| threats include things that are prior Unix art. "In a weak sense, it
| is a form of Unix" is also telling. I said before that I don't think
| that's the case; I think the patent stuff is talking about things like
| Samba and Mono, but even there the "influenced by that environment"
| could be important in the court of public opinion if not in actual
| law.
`----
http://aplawrence.com/Unixart/gates_quote.html
Windows Vista vs. Mac OS X: The Copycat Olympics
,----[ Quote ]
| In Microsoft's defense, though, why wouldn't you want to "borrow" ideas
| from other successful products? Vista, Leopard, and Linux are all
| competing against each other, although in reality, each one is better for
| a different set of users. Apple may go on and on about the similarities
| between Tiger and Vista, but they're there for a reason. When
| innovation fails, then you need to try and learn from the best, and
| that's what Microsoft is doing. However, they're a little late to the
| game, and the competing follow-up usually isn't as good as the original.
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2300&Itemid=449
All the Myth about Microsoft!
,----[ Quote ]
| * Microsoft was first with graphical user interface
|
| * Microsoft designed BASIC Language
|
| * Microsoft designed visual basic
|
| * Microsoft invented DOS
|
| * Microsoft designed the first spreadsheet - Excel
|
| * Microsoft designed the first word processor
|
| * First with Internet browser
`----
http://196.2.70.231:8080/ict_blog/open-ict-hacks/microsoft-myth
Vista at the tipping point
,----[ Quote ]
| Where are the new features?
|
| Why is Vista such a catastrophe and how does this affect the Open
| Source/Free Software community? Part of the problem, I think, is that
| Vista essentially does nothing new, and has no new features that are
| of interest to the general computer using public. The veteran IT
| journalist Nicholas Petreley (now editor of Linux Journal) created
| his first law of computer journalism, which is "No technology
| exists until Microsoft invents it". This held true while Microsoft
| systems were so primitive that every new release was a vast
| improvement on the previous one. The public "oohed" and "ahhed"
| over such exciting new features as multi-tasking, and overlapping
| windows; even as people in the industry tried to point out that
| every new feature was merely copied from other, more sophisticated
| systems. The problem for Microsoft is that most of this copying has
| already been done. Windows XP actually has most of the features of
| Linux and the Mac, though I'd complain they're implemented poorly
| in Windows. Even if Vista has improved on the implementation, what
| kind of a marketing message is "we now do things properly"?
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9590_22-6151049.html
History's Lesson: Microsoft May Use Novell to Kill OpenOffice, ODF
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Faces New Antitrust Probe Over Corel Deal... Another
| case of acquiring your competitors to elbow rivals out of the
| way, eh? Novell is Microsoft's weapon against the Linux community.
`----
http://boycottnovell.com/2006/11/30/corel-linux-odf/
|
|
