On last week’s Wednesday a Canadian firm successfully sued Microsoft for around £175 million for infringing on a patent and as a result of this Microsoft has been banned from selling Microsoft Word.
The reason for this ban and successful court case is because the latest version of Word uses XML as a file format. This is complete and utter lunacy and I suspect due to a large prejudice against Microsoft in the IT community (and also to get a few new houses and super cars for someone).
Firstly let’s look at how absurd this case is – XML is produced by the W3C and is a fee-free open standard therefore people can use it how they wish in whatever way they wish. I use XML on a pretty much daily basis, Open Office saves documents in XML as well as hundreds of other application out there, be they desktop or web based so surely all of these other applications must cease trading to?
I’m no lawyer but even though people like Open Office aren’t making money from their product they are, according to this case, infringing on a patent and so are still liable to similar court cases. If I nicked someone’s clever software idea and used it in my free application at best I’d get told to give credit to the creator (fair enough of course) – at worst I could be held accountable for loss of income.
It seems like a witch hunt to me, but that’s not what really annoys me – what really annoys me is Apple.
Now before I get flamed for criticizing Steve Jobs and his band of merry men bare in mind I’m typing this on my MacBook, while texting on my iPhone. At work I have an iMac; and I have iBrows.
In principal I like Apple and it’s products – they’re well designed, reliable and intuitive and Apple are in touch with their user base on a much better level than Microsoft; sure the products themselves are on the expensive side but that is partly why Mac OS is more stable than Windows – Apple don’t outsource the components in it’s machines because it means they don’t have to account for an innumerable number of hardware configurations (that’s what they say anyway, I’m sure that the extra income isn’t a motivator at all 
).
But what really annoys me is that Apple is far more draconian than Microsoft and no one seems to care.
It’s app store is the best example for this – Apple will reject apps that compete with it’s own software; a prime example for this being Opera Mini.
According to various sources Opera Mini for the iPhone was at the very least in some form of development for the iPhone but this development was halted because the software would compete with Safari on the iPhone and thus would be rejected from the app store.
Say what?! Competition is a good thing!
I don’t like Safari…that said, I’m not a big fan of Opera either but it’d be nice to have the choice of which browser I use on the iPhone I bought with my money…it’s almost enough to put me off getting a 3GS next month…
If Microsoft banned Open Office from Windows because it “duplicated features” (as Apple puts it) available in it’s Office products people wouldn’t stand for it, or at least would not take it as calmly as they do with Apple, so why do we just lie back and take it when Apple do it?
I suspect it’s because Apple is a brand people love – they seem to be able to do no wrong – hell I’m sat here ranting about it and I’m doing it on one of their machines, I’m still planning to get a 3GS (who’d want a G1, eh Alan? 
) and I still use my iMac at work, telling the PC users how wrong they are and how they should switch. I reckon we’re all being taken for mugs, myself included…but these things have a way of coming back to get you.
Microsoft have been in trouble before now for uncompetitive practices and has been fined huge (for a normal human being, not for someting like Microsoft) sums of money for these nefarious deeds – Apple is doing similar things by disallowing competing products – how long until they get into trouble for it and how will the IT community react to that news?
