I too would like microsoft to step it up, there are a lot of intelligent people there that have managed to make a mess out of mostly everything in the past ten year under the management of an arch moron such as balmer. They desperately need restructuring, vision, and honesty. To release a kids phone, the kin, tout it as a revolutionary product and cancel it after 40 days and 500 units sold is on of the multitude of embarrassing examples of ineptness by microsoft.
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Originally Posted by EowynCarter
Apple, microsoft = closed.
When i think "open", to me it means "free", in the sense of "non proprietary". That would be linux, android, open office, Firefox and so on.
That's the definition of open.
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yeah but that's a very idealistic definition of open, which is also frequently equated with crap. As in linux distros being mostly crap (to be absolutely honest and not beat about the bush, I too love the work these guys do, I too have an ubuntu system but if one produces something and they don't get payed they don't have the resources to create something worthwhile.). Developers have to be paid, of course the can support the fos community on the side, but if something ultimately good is going to come out then it's going to be via them being able to support themselves and their families.
As for google, being open couldn't be the farthest from the truth. Let me ask you something if google is open why is skype only allowed to be run as an app in verizon phones? The only open thing about android is the core kernel, on top of that it's laden with restrictions, interfaces which the various mobile companies (such as say the motoblur) put upon it, etc. etc. It couldn't be further than the truth that android is open. On top of all that when an os serves as a cash cow for advertising dollars for google restricting your search options and your privacy to almost zero, that's hardly open. You should also ask sun about how "open" android has stolen so many of their java patents.
But apple's darwin (the unix basis of os x) is also open source unlike windows, as various other technologies associated with it such as open cl, grand central dispatch, facetime, cups printing, the great webkit that almost all mobile browsers use. Apple is indeed very open, the fact that they combine proprietary layers within an open structure so they can survive and thrive, doesn't mean they are "closed", they are as open as any for profit company can be.