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7 Reasons Why Apple is More Evil than Microsoft

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Thanks to the hard work and vision of Steve Jobs, Apple has managed to evolve from a mere cult to a mainstream phenomenon. Fanboys, celebrities, politicians and geeks who adore their products have exalted the billion-dollar company to a technological pseudoreligion. A silent witness to Apple's magnificent ascent from failure to stardom has been Microsoft.

Though Microsoft has been the traditional bad guy of the Silicon Valley, Apple has stealthily usurped that spot by its recent actions, most of which are a bit on the dark side. As a FOSS enthusiast I believe that Microsoft is overly competitive but so is Apple.

If you think that Apple is much less evil than Microsoft, read on as we give you 7 reasons that will make Redmond look slightly better than Cupertino.


1. Thou shalt not install any external apps
Apple has been busy building a walled garden with big white shiny walls. The Cupertino-based company makes sure that you buy or download apps only from their store and not from anywhere else. Yeah, we know there's an app for everything, but you can't get it if it's not sold by Apple.


2. Thou shalt not jailbreak
Jailbreaking is magic pill that helps you evade the claustrophobic App Store and lets you do everything you wanted to do with your phone. Despite the fact that jailbreaking is legal in many countries, Apple insists that doing so will only void your warranty. It's as if you can buy any device from Apple but you've to use it the way they tell you. So, play by Apple's rules or else...


3. Thou shalt not talk about Apple
Let's say you are a popular celebrity, and you point out some of iPhone's faults on national television, just to poke fun at Apple. Guess what, they don't like it; they'll call you up and ask you to apologize. The same thing happened with Ellen DeGeneres when she did a parody of an Apple ad on her show. Later, she got a phone from Apple accusing her of making the iPhone look hard to use. I hope they've heard of the term 'sense of humor'.

On another incident, Apple reproached someone for talking about one of the much-publicized features of the iPhone 4S. The guy who recorded the male voice of Siri got a phone call from Apple telling him not to talk about the recordings. I guess working for Apple must be like working for a secret government project where you have to be tight-lipped about everything that goes on in the facility.


4. Thou shalt not have the name Apple in your product
If you're a small-business owner and happen to have an apple – yep, it's also a fruit -- in your company's logo, Cupertino's coming at you. Recently, Apple threatened Apfelkind ( “apple child” in German), a family-run cafe in Bonn that has an Apple in its logo. The logo, which is quite different from Apple's own logo, has a child's face inside an apple. According to Apple, Apfelkind infringes on Apple Inc.'s trademark.


5. Thou shalt not find out flaws in our system
In the FOSS world, a developer who finds a security bug or a critical flaw is revered as a hero. In fact, Google even gave out prizes to users who found out critical flaws in their browser. In Apple's case however, finding a bug in the system means that you'll be disqualified as a developer.


6. We reserve the right to reject your app for any reason whatsoever
Apple seems to reject apps from their app store for the smallest of reasons. A Print to PDF app was removed from the store because it used AirPrint as a way to print documents to PDF. Moreover, Kindle, Sony and Kobo reader apps were removed too as they used an in-app payment system. While this doesn't affect big companies like Amazon, it does, however, make a hugely negative impact on the lives of thousands of independent developers who make a livelihood out of making these apps. This is also one of the reasons developers flocked to Android instead of iOS. Recently, fearing lawsuits, many app developers have started pulling their apps from Apple store as Google welcomes them with open arms.


7. We fire our employees for the smallest of reasons
A test engineer at Apple couldn't believe his bad luck when he was fired by the company for prematurely demoing a prototype of the iPad to Steve Wozniak. Wozniak, who happens to be one of Apple's founders, expressed his disappointment at Apple's behavior. The test engineer, however, still remains unemployed. On the other hand Gary Powell, who lost an iPhone prototype is still a proud Apple employee. Need I say more?

14 comments

  1. frightening, huh?

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  2. And still you own a Macbook and it probably runs Mac OS X ;)

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  3. Where are the open source free software alternatives? Steve Jobs gave us a computer people could use. Where is the open source free software computer people can use. Where is the ultralight Macbook Air type computer from FOSS community?

    Would most people rather buy a FOSS ecosystem? They would but it's Apple that makes the computer they can use. It's Facebook that has created the social network the average person can use.

    All I hear from FOSS is that these other Corporations are evil yet there's no FOSS alternative. If I want a macbook air type laptop I have to buy Apple. The average person can't use Ubuntu.

    The average person wants to walk into a shiny Apple store and find a wonderland. So is it Apple that is evil or perhaps is it the consumers who shop Apple stores making them the most profitable stores per square inch of any retail establishment.

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  4. A pretty pathetic attempt at exposing Apple if you ask me. Here are 7 relatively simple rebuttals to your aforementioned weak arguments.
    1) Apple has successfully implemented a seamless lifecycle comprised of its hardware, software, and services. Each of them are built for functionality with the other elements, they're made for each other. This is why people are always praising the way things work so seamlessly with each other with relatively little, if any, glitches. Open that market up and try to make your product more 'versatile' will only make room for incompatibility...less control, but more blame and liability.
    2) Chastising a company for discouraging jailbreaking? Please show me a cell phone OS developer that encourages us to do so. Android, Windows, iOS; all of which require their users to jump through a considerable amount of fiery hopes to do so.
    3) Blaming Apple for having a responsive and effective PR team? Like 99% of successful corporations out there? This point of yours is oozing of naivete.
    4) Do yourself and search 'Apple Federal Credit Union' and think about rewriting this one.
    5) Finding a bug in their system means you get disqualified as a developer, huh? That must mean that the folks at Apple are the luckiest sons of guns in the world, because if this were logically true, all of them get it right on their first tries. They must not have beta versions at Apple.
    6) I doubt people are starving on the streets or going to sleep while trying to quiet the rumblings of their stomach, simply because Apple cancelled support for Airprint. Stop hyperbolizing.
    7) I guess codes of employee conduct are to be used as toilet paper at corporations you've had experience with, because apparently you think they're just for jest and don't mean sh*t. When you work at a corporation that is defined by its groundbreaking products and the market anticipation that drives them, I'm betting that you wouldn't want some engineer out in the field parading it as a spectacle for everyone to see before it is fully finalized. If you seriously see that as a 'small reason,' then there are other issues you need to come to grips with in this world.

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  5. Number one reason: Because the Apple culture gave birth to Hipters.

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  6. All your points are, unfortunately, too true. Apple products may work, but only on Apple's (very) expensive and limiting terms. Their products typically appeal to lazy hipsters - the latter days' conspicuous consumers. Seems they are really getting what they bought ;)

    Luckily, Apple's days are counted. Watch out for Samsung, Google and Linux - and Motorola a.o. for mobiles. Better - even free! - choices abound already!

    And to the person above who claimed ordinary people are unable to use Linux: How do you manage to start your browser?

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  7. '... Need I say more?'

    Yes, please.

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  8. LOL, great outline of things that are wrong with Apple. However, one thing that makes its damage contained is that whatever BS they spew out in their system remains limited to their own hardware -- unlike MS whose crap, though less evil than Apple's, still goes out on every imaginable PC hardware configuration that exists in the world.

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  9. I must disagree with Kushal Sharma who states "MS whose crap". You're really putting down a LOT of people. I can almost bet that you're running Windows right now. You also seem to forget Microsoft puts out AMAZING software. Microsoft has designed a lot of awesome things that MILLIONS of people RELY on. Think about it. They aren't the best in the world, no. Look at the .NET framework, amazing development system. Windows Server IIS7, ASP.NET, fast and powerful. Security updates? Daily basis. "They update a lot because Windows is unsecure" - No, they update a lot because a lot MORE people use Windows then OSX. OSX has a security exploit? Yea, Apple might fix it in a month or two or maybe longer. iPhone? I work in a call center for a hosting company, and 99% of the issues are iPhone/Mac/iPad related "OUR PHONE ISN'T DOING THIS" "OUR MAC MAIL IS CHANGING WHAT I INPUTTED". Yep, you can have your crappy Apple product. Me? I'll stick to Linux and Windows.

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  10. AnonymousJuly 25, 2012

    Deep works for Apple's PR people.

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  11. Steve Jobs gave us a computer people could use? You can't use a Windows based machine? - too incompetent? Imagine that?

    What utter drivel

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  12. Apple: Making sure you can't do anything we don't want you to.As a bonus , we provide mediocre specs at high prices but it looks good of course...Please note, our marketing is targeted at the uninformed so if you have any substantial computer knowledge, we understand if you go elsewhere...what's yours is mine, Steve Jobs

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  13. The only reason I don´t entirely regret having bought a Mac Mini 2011 is that I can install any x86 OS I want later.

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  14. Screw Microsoft, Screw Apple. Its time to upgrade to the new "Commodore 64" that is "Commodore 64-bit"! Just google "Commodore 64" for some old pics. Enjoy. Cheers, Ron Lentjes.

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