Quote:
Originally Posted by jbcohen
Many of my fellow IT professionals referr to apple products as proprietary. What do you think they are talking about? What am I missing?
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Proprietary applies to a software or hardware which is marketed under the exclusivity legal rights and permissions of its creator or vendor.
Operating System are usually proprietary with a few exceptions like Linux, hence why you cannot sell or make profits of Linux; you can offer service, but not sell the Os itself.
Proprietary hardware is similar. The hardware itself cannot be modified, marketed, altered in any form without the vendor's permissions.
The downside or restriction of above is that when writing software or code, if the hardware is proprietary, it is more difficult to design the program because the developer will have to do some kind of reverse engineering in order to develop something that interact properly with the hardware piece; an example on Linux, Nvidia drivers. That does not mean is impossible, but the program won't be endorsed by the hardware company.
Hardware ports are usually non proprietary, like USB, which allows developers and manufacturers, design devices which can use such non proprietary devices.