Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Monday, January 13, 2003

Apple Hit Microsoft with an Open Hand (a net column in Finnish) -- Comment()
I wrote a net column titled "Apple Hit Microsoft with an Open Hand" (in Finnish, Apple löi Microsoftia avokämmenellä). The column appeared today on the net, have to see if it generates feedback. Reading weblog commentary on the Safari browser was useful for formulating my own thoughts for the column.

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Microsoft agrees to $1.1 billion class settlement: "Hundreds of thousands of Californians could benefit from an estimated $1.1 billion settlement announced late Friday by Microsoft Corp. in a class-action antitrust suit." [Computerworld News]

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MacSlash points to Cringely: Apple v. Microsoft:

Products like Safari are always brewing inside Apple, but like Mystery House, they hardly ever get out. That Safari escaped has as much to do with Microsoft as it has to do with Apple. Relations between the two companies have lately been strained. Microsoft, out from under its Department of Justice legal cloud and feeling once again empowered to act on its corporate paranoia, has been grumbling about pulling Mac IE and about poor sales of Mac Office V.X. But this time, rather than capitulate, Apple has fired back with a world class browser of its own. I like that.
But wait, there's more! Apple also introduced a $99 PowerPoint competitor called Keynote. This presentation program does more than PowerPoint and does it cheaper. It includes QuickTime video and Acrobat printed output, and it reads and writes PowerPoint files so who cares that it didn't come from Microsoft? With Redmond periodically threatening Apple with an end to Microsoft Office for the Mac, this is Apple saying, "We dare you."

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Apple's Safari Browser Is Hard To Close: "If Apple continues to show the intelligence and discipline with this software that they have so far, I think it will become the primary browser for many Mac users." (O'Reilly Network via MyAppleMenu) [MyAppleMenu]

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Apple Kills Small Developers: "I don't know why Apple doesn't spend more money on its OS and less on application software best left to third parties." (Eclecticity II via MyAppleMenu) [MyAppleMenu]

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Yes, The World Needs Another Browser: "Yes, Safari's initial popularity and performance potential shows that the Mac world did indeed need another Web browser. It may not be your cup of tea, but this is one cool program, dude." (Mac Night Owl via MyAppleMenu) [MyAppleMenu]

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Surprise: Apple's New Browser Is a Sister to Konqueror: "Apple raises its open-source stakes by basing its new browser on KHTML and giving its code back to the community. The big question: Now what?" [Linux Journal]

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The Scobleizer Weblog tells that Dan Shafer has a good rant against Apple: 'Both Microsoft and Apple have messed up their "farm systems." It used to be that there was a good farm system of small developers who'd build things for each platform. Now both Microsoft and Apple are trying to do everything in house. Part of that is frustration with relying on outside developers (heck, Quark XPress still hasn't been ported to OS X). Part of it is an unwillingness to share secrets (and make outside entities wealthy). But, it doesn't make a platform healthier, either, since most innovations come from small companies. Look at Weblogging. The Weblogging world has been steadily growing for more than two years now, but neither company has done anything for individuals like the handful of weblogging companies have.'

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The X Factor: Apple Rolls Out New Version of X11 Windowing Environment: "Apple [...] quietly announced X11 for Mac OS X, its own new open-source implementation of XFree86. [...] The new implementation supports SSH tunneling and runs concurrently and seamlessly with other applications that use Apple's Aqua user interface. Content can be cut, copied and pasted between X and Aqua windows. It also takes advantage of Apple's Quartz graphics system." [ranchero.com]

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WebCore: "WebCore is the framework developers can use to add Safari’s HTML renderer to their applications. There’s a pretty good chance NetNewsWire will use this. Step one for me will be to get it working with a simple test app." [ranchero.com]

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X11 Tips: "Mac OS X Hints has a collection of tips for using Apple’s new X11 implementation." [ranchero.com]

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A good thing about Safari.: "Apple's Safari is rather un-impresive browser but there is one thing that Apple does that makes a lot of sense: they'll make it into a framework called WebCore that other people will be able to use as a HTML rendering engine. Ability to easily display HTML in one's apps seems like a no-brainer but it always amazed me how hard it actually is." [Krzysztof Kowalczyk's Weblog]

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Using MATLAB with Apple's X11 beta: "MATLAB was ported to OS X as an X-windows application, and is currently only supported with the OroborOSX window manager. X11 is much faster, and it is easy make MATLAB operate with this manager." [Mac OS X Hints]

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Safari update available: "Apple has released an update to their Safari web browser, bringing it to beta version 51 (the initial release was v48)." [MacMegasite]